A state agency on Tuesday approved using public money to purchase two additional pieces of land for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium.
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority board signed off on deals to buy the small parcels from private landowners for a combined $1.44 million. That brings to almost $9 million the amount of state money the GWCCA has agreed to pay for property on the stadium site just south of the Georgia Dome.
Agreements have been reached to buy all of the private property needed for the stadium, except for one parcel that the state has begun the process of acquiring through use of eminent domain.
In September, after lengthy negotiations, deals were reached to purchase the major properties needed for the stadium: Friendship Baptist and Mount Vernon Baptist churches. The Falcons agreed to pay $19.5 million for Friendship’s property, while the Falcons and the GWCCA agreed to pay a combined $14.5 million for Mount Vernon’s (including $6.2 million from the GWCCA).
The deals with the churches meant five other parcels — totaling just more than 2 acres and currently used mainly for event parking and billboards — needed to be acquired. The GWCCA now has agreements to purchase four of those five parcels — two approved last month for a combined $1.29 million and the two approved Tuesday subject to authorization from the State Properties Commission.
GWCCA Chief Operating Officer Kevin Duvall said the negotiated prices on the four parcels are within the properties’ appraised values.
The owner of the remaining 0.4-acre parcel asked for $12.5 million, far above the GWCCA’s offer of $1.26 million, prompting the state to begin condemnation proceedings. The property owner’s attorney, Charles Pursley, previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the eminent-domain process allows the price dispute to be litigated without delaying construction.
Ground-breaking is slated for April, and the $1.2 billion, retractable-roof stadium is scheduled to open in 2017, at which point the Georgia Dome will be demolished. The new stadium will become part of the Georgia World Congress Center campus.
The property-acquisition costs are not included in the $200 million from Atlanta hotel-motel taxes that will go toward construction. The GWCCA is using money appropriated to it last year by the Georgia Legislature for land acquisition.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the GWCCA board was updated on negotiations with the Falcons on a definitive stadium contract that will supersede the memorandum of understanding signed in April. The major financial terms are unchanged, but many details have been added or fleshed out.
Four items remain under negotiation, said Franklin Jones, an attorney representing the GWCCA.
“Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, we can get these open issues resolved,” Jones said.
The open issues provide insight into the level of legal detail that must be negotiated. One, for example, concerns whether the Falcons would have approval rights over the GWCCA’s ability to rebuild the stadium in the event of catastrophic damage in the final three years of the team’s 30-year lease.
GWCCA Executive Director Frank Poe said he doesn’t see the remaining issues as a significant hurdle.
“From where we were in, say, August … it’s pretty significant progress to get down to where we have just four things to work through,” Poe said. “I don’t really see anything right now that would keep us from” completing the contract by Dec. 15, the parties’ mutual target date.
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