The site of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium remained in flux after a lengthy meeting Wednesday of a Georgia World Congress Center Authority committee.
GWCCA executive director Frank Poe said after the meeting, much of which was spent in closed executive session, that two potential stadium sites remain on the table — the preferred site immediately south of the Georgia Dome that requires buying two churches and an alternate site a half mile north of the Dome.
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With an Aug. 1 deadline to buy Friendship Baptist and Mount Vernon Baptist churches approaching — and no deal in place — the Falcons want to begin “due diligence work” on the alternate site. A scheduled vote on giving the team permission to do so was not taken because of a lack of a quorum of the committee, but the matter was passed along to the full GWCCA board, which will meet next week.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank, in a detailed statement released Wednesday, said the club “determined it was prudent” to inspect the north site to keep the stadium on track for a planned 2017 opening.
“There are advantages to both sites,” Blank said in the statement, which noted the Falcons originally preferred the north site before agreeing to the south site “primarily given its attractiveness” to the GWCCA and the city.
“The clear advantage of the south site is its proximity to MARTA,” Blank said. “… The key advantage of the north site is that its size and location provide the flexibility to optimally position the new stadium. The bottom line, though, is that both sites are workable solutions.”
Poe was noncommittal on whether negotiations for property on the south site would continue if the Falcons begin due diligence work on the alternate site.
“It’s definitely going to take it in a different direction,” he said. He would not comment on the status of negotiations with the churches.
“We have seen the south site … as the preferred site,” Poe said. “Reality sets in, in which you have to be prepared to take those steps necessary to ensure we’re not being an impediment to the Falcons.”
For several months, the city has been negotiating with Friendship Baptist and the GWCCA with Mount Vernon Baptist. At one point, the city said Friendship was offered $15.5 million and wanted $24.5 million. The GWCCA has declined to disclose any information regarding the Mount Vernon negotiations.
Blank’s statement said the Falcons, the GWCCA and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed “have no interest in forcing these churches to move.”
“If the churches determine that selling their property is not in their best interest, we will respect their positions and build the new stadium on the north site,” Blank said. “… To be clear, the churches need to make the decision that is right for them, not for us.”
Falcons president Rich McKay said due diligence on the north site could take three months but would not jeopardize the stadium being completed by 2017. The work will include examining soil on the site and what to do about existing power lines.
Neil deMause, who has studied stadium construction nationally and wrote the book “Field of Schemes,” said the Falcons’ desire to begin work on the alternative site indicates negotiations with the churches are troubled.
“Obviously, you don’t start spending money on Plan B if Plan A is going to happen,” deMause said.
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