Long before Tyler Perry made an offer to buy most of Fort McPherson, a civilian authority sketched a plan to turn the defunct Army post into a thriving hub.
The authority — aided by former Mayor Shirley Franklin, East Point officials and community leaders — envisioned a mixed-income housing complex that preserved green space and historic buildings and surrounded a life sciences campus that planners hoped would bring high-paying jobs. It also wanted housing and services for the homeless.
Little has happened with that plan, years in the making and crafted with the help of big name real estate firms. Instead, city officials are now negotiating with Perry, who wants to bring a film studio to the site.
The news leaves many who developed the master plan wondering what will come of their work. Some fear a movie studio will continue to isolate the surrounding community. Others say it’s a shot in the arm the downtrodden area needs. The authority is scheduled to meet Thursday.
Dustin Drabot, an East Point community leader long involved in the talks, worries the Perry deal won't preserve parks and green space. And he fears the barbed wire fence that divided the post from the community like the Berlin Wall will remain.
“We sat through this for eight years and you flushed it down the toilet. I’m sure it looks good for the politicians, but you screwed the community,” Drabot said during a recent meeting with members of the civilian authority overseeing the post’s redevelopment. “…There’s no commitment on historic buildings, no commitment on green space promised to us, no commitment on bringing down the wall.”
Competition for high-paying jobs ramped up amid a recession and fewer corporate prospects in the market. Life sciences and pharmaceutical firms have picked sites in places such as Cobb County and Social Circle in recent years, but Fort McPherson hasn’t landed a big recruit.
Ruben Burney, a member of a local neighborhood planning unit, praised the deal at a meeting held a few weeks ago. Fort McPherson badly needs development, he said, and there aren’t a lot of takers.
“For so long I’ve been coming to these meetings and sometimes I’m not taking anything back to report to my community,” he said. “But this is something that is solid, something that really can happen.”
Perry’s interest in the property was known under the code name “Project Coltrane” by civilian authorities until made public last month. It isn’t clear how Perry’s plans might affect green space, or who would retain each of the historic Army buildings.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who led early talks with the filmmaker, has said Perry plans to purchase 346 acres of the 488-acre post for $33 million, and Atlanta will receive about 125 acres at no cost to the city.
The McPherson Implementation Local Redevelopment Authority, or MILRA, the civilian group overseeing the post’s redevelopment, voted last month to begin negotiations with the filmmaker.
The Army is set to transfer the entire post to MILRA sometime this month for $30 million. Perry’s $33 million purchase would cover Atlanta’s carrying costs once the property is transferred, Reed said.
The mayor has pledged that MILRA and Perry will present the proposal to local residents for input. But some residents worry what they want might not matter.
“(The Perry plan) is out there now and I don’t know that the local residents from the communities have been solicited for their input and their opinions in the process,” said Teresa Nelson, a former East Point councilwoman who has participated in the Fort McPherson planning.
Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd, who sits on the MILRA board, acknowledged Perry’s proposal is a “game changer.”
At the recent gathering with neighborhood leaders, she expressed optimism that a film studio could anchor redevelopment that will connect the post to nearby areas, but also urged residents to be realistic about their options.
“We have been bumping our heads for the last two to three years with a reality check of ‘Who is coming over here to Fort McPherson. Who is coming?’” she said.
Even those applauding the idea of a biosciences center doubted it would come to life, she said: “We could not get bites.”
Perry, by contrast, represents a real buyer with real money, city leaders said.
“We’ve now been at this seven years, so for all of the planning that folks have discussed, no one has ever come up to Fort McPherson for anything,” Reed said in a June interview. “If someone wants to present a deal that’s better than that, before we have to write a check to the Army, I’d like to talk to him.”
The mayor pledged Atlanta will preserve a “significant share” of the green space. He has said he believes such a development will draw other businesses to the area and further solidify Georgia’s growing reputation as a major player in the film industry.
A 1994 federal law calls for some property on closed military posts to be reserved to aid the homeless. Properties scattered about Fort McPherson were set aside several years ago for jobs training programs and living space for former homeless people and at-risk residents.
About a half-dozen nonprofits signed legally binding agreements with the authority in 2010, and the plan was signed off by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Previously, federal and local authorities agreed to reserve 7 percent of units eventually built on-site for housing former homeless people and at-risk families.
It’s still unknown how Perry’s proposal will impact the long-standing agreements with homeless service providers.
Messages left for Perry’s representatives haven’t been returned.
Jack Hardin, who spent years helping to develop the plan that included setting aside land for homeless service providers, said he expects MILRA and city leaders to honor those efforts.
“I know the people on that board, I believe they will honor their obligations,” he said last month. “These providers that have legal rights will probably insist on it.”
Jack Sprott, MILRA’s executive director, said the authority plans to uphold those agreements.
“Whatever obligations we have we are going to maintain,” he said. “We will keep up our end.”
The charities selected by MILRA had been working to outline the number of units and services to be provided on the post as the authority inched closer to taking control, said Bruce Gunter, president of one of the nonprofits, Progressive Redevelopment.
Gunter said recently his group wants to discuss the Perry offer with MILRA and how it might affect plans for homeless aid on site. Gunter said he did not know if the city and authority might offer other land in exchange for property on the post.
“We want to work together with the mayor and the authority for something that works for everybody,” Gunter said.
Neither the city nor the authority has signed a memorandum of understanding with Perry, but a deal could be inked sometime in July, a spokeswoman for Reed said.
About the Author
