A bankruptcy judge on Thursday granted a request to continue until June 12 a hearing to review Morris Brown’s proposed sale to the city of Atlanta and a historic church.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, Morris Brown’s largest creditor, requested the delay to work through its objections to the proposed sale. Those objections, filed this week, charge that the $14.6 million offer from the city and Friendship Baptist Church would not allow the college to repay the $18.6 million it owes the AME Church. The AME Church also charges that the proposed sale does not specify how or when the net proceeds will be distributed.
“Our objection was about lack of details” about the plan, AME Church attorney J. Robert Williamson told Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro. “I hope we get to the point that we could support a proposed sale. We’re not there today.”
The joint bid by Invest Atlanta, the city’s development authority, and Friendship Church, one of two historic churches that were relocated to make room for the new Falcons stadium, was the highest of seven offers for the Morris Brown property, Morris Brown attorney Anne Aaronson said Thursday.
The college does not intend to ask the city to increase its offer, Aaronson said, and the two-week delay will be used to handle “minor tweaks” with the purchase agreement.
The city does not intend to increase its offer, said Melissa Mullinax, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kasim Reeed. “We think this is a fair offer,” she said. “Our offer stands as is.”
Morris Brown rejected a $10 million offer from the city last year to buy the land.
The current deal allows Morris Brown to keep the administration building and two other historic buildings on the area of campus south of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to continue operations, Aaronson said. Friendship Church will own the Middleton Towers, the towers’ parking lot and the college gym. The city will own the property north of MLK Drive, including the stadium and the post office.
The judge also denied a motion by Clark Atlanta University, included in a separate objection filed with the court, to return land it claims to own under a long-standing agreement with Morris Brown. Clark Atlanta has laid claim to several acres of the property that were long ago gifted to Morris Brown on the condition that it be used for educational purposes. If the property is used for another purpose, it would revert to Clark Atlanta, the objection claims.
Five parcels of this property would be included on the area of the campus that would be owned by Invest Atlanta, Aaronson said. Morris Brown has maintained that it would only sell its interest in the property.
City officials said the land would continue in its current use right now.
“(Morris Brown says) they are selling their interest,” Clark Atlanta attorney David Wender said. “We’re saying they don’t have an interest to sell.”
A scheduled closing date on the sale is set for June 16.
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