ICE buys Oakwood warehouse for $68 million in plan to detain more immigrants in Ga.

The Trump administration has finalized its purchase of a Hall County warehouse, which it plans on converting into an immigration detention center.

The Department of Homeland Security paid just over $68 million for the Oakwood facility, according to a warranty deed filed with county authorities. Leaked Immigration and Customs Enforcement planning documents suggest that up to 1,500 immigrants could be held there.

Earlier this month, B.R. White, city manager for the town of Oakwood, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that detainees’ arrival is set to take place “within a couple of months.”

The Feb. 18 closing on the Oakwood warehouse represents the second massive real estate purchase by immigration officials in Georgia. On Feb. 3, DHS bought a bigger warehouse with a capacity for 8,500 beds in Social Circle, for roughly $129 million.

Local leadership in both towns had expressed opposition to being the outposts of sprawling new ICE detention centers, but told media and concerned members of the public that they lacked the power to block a federal project. The hopes of people opposed to ICE’s plans rested on the property owners of the warehouses backing away from the deals — but that has failed to happen.

White estimates that the acquisition of the Oakwood facility by the federal government will reduce the tax rolls in Hall County and the city by about $770,000.

He described the $68 million price tag as a fair market value purchase price.

Connections to global investment firm

According to the deed of the sale, the Oakwood warehouse’s owner was listed as “CRP/AI Oakwood Owner, L.L.C.”

Per registration documents filed in January with the Georgia secretary of state, the company’s principal office address matches the Pennsylvania Avenue address of The Carlyle Group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

A December 2024 name change request from CRP/AI Oakwood Owner with Georgia authorities was signed by an individual with a The Carlyle Group email address.

An elite private equity firm with deep roots in the defense sector, The Carlyle Group recently raised $9 billion in capital commitments for its real estate arm, Carlyle Realty Partners.