The South Carolina developer who was approved to purchase Underground Atlanta didn’t have a lot of competition for the property.
T. Scott Smith’s company, WRS Inc., was the sole bidder for the 12-acre mall, Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Michael Geisler told the city council’s finance committee on Monday.
Last month, Mayor Kasim Reed announced the city plans to sell the renowned tourist site for $25.8 million. Smith wants to convert the multi-tiered center into a mixed-use development that will include a grocery anchor and apartment homes. The developer said he expects a total investment of $150 million to $200 million.
News that WRS was the only bidder on the sale has at least one council member concerned. District 9 Councilwoman Felicia Moore, who asked Geisler about the bids on Monday, said she’s worried that the city didn’t adequately market the property.
CBRE Brokerage Services advertised the bid in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last June, with bids due in mid-July.
“I want to be sure that it was marketed to other potential buyers, like we market other properties,” Moore said. “What you want is the highest and best use and the best potential return,” she said.
A Reed spokeswoman said there was no need to rebid the project because WRS satisfied the city’s goals and brings “fresh vision” to the struggling downtown site.
Nearly all of the proceeds will go toward paying off debt associated with Underground: Two remaining years of bond payments and $8.8 million to buy out CV Underground, which holds a long-term lease to manage the site, Reed has said.
“We didn’t see a need to stall progress when we had a strong offer from a company with a high level of expertise and a track record of success,” spokeswoman Jenna Garland said. “Furthermore, the bid process to sell Underground followed our standard procurement procedure, and it would have been inappropriate to simply throw out a valid bid.”
It’s the second recent instance of city assets garnering less than enthusiastic interest. Last week, The AJC reported that city officials were underwhelmed by bids to purchase the Civic Center.
A Reed deputy said that Atlanta received as many as eight bids on the property near Piedmont Avenue, but that all came in well short of what city leaders think the nearly 20-acre property is worth — a figure Councilman Andre Dickens estimates around $40 million.
Reed officials haven’t yet said whether they plan to re-bid the project.
The mayor has made selling the floundering city assets a key priority in his second term, both to help shore up the city’s savings ahead of an infrastructure bond referendum in March and to boost the city’s property tax revenue by turning over the land to the private sector.
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