Quote:
Originally Posted by Atlanta3000
|
For all you CRE spectators, I suggest you follow Tony Wilbert on Twitter. He usually the first to report on breaking news we all love.
https://twitter.com/twilbert
More Details
http://product.costar.com/home/news/shared/189280
MARCH 30, 2018|TONY WILBERT
California Developer Plans 512 Apartments at Hazardous Downtown Site
Mixed-Use Community Near Garnett MARTA Gets $100 Million in Bond Financing
An ambitious plan to convert a contaminated site in Downtown Atlanta to hundreds of apartments and retail space recently received a huge shot in the arm.
The boost comes from the Development Authority of Fulton County (DAFC), which approved a letter of inducement to issue $100 million in revenue bonds to help finance the 500,000-square-foot mixed-use project planned at 409 Whitehall St., about a half-mile from the Garnett MARTA Station.
San Francisco-based Eagle Environmental Construction (EEC) plans to develop a mixed-use project with 512 apartments, 25,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and a 520-car garage plus additional retail parking.
But the site is listed on the Georgia Hazardous Site Inventory. HSI is a list of properties where a regulated substance has been released into the environment above a reportable quantity and not yet cleaned to state standards. For years, the site was home to Simmons Plating Works.
The total cost to remediate the site is $13 million, Eversheds Sutherland attorney Will Pickens told the DAFC. To date, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has spent more than $3 million to clean up the site, and as a result, has a lien on part of the property. For years, Simmons Plating made coatings for metals at the site, which rendered it contaminated.
Because of the required remediation, the Whitehall project likely is not feasible without bond financing, EEC CEO Ronald Batiste informed DAFC members at its Feb. 27 meeting. "Mr. Batiste informed the Authority of his extensive experience developing contaminated sites and that it can be very difficult to generate financing for such sites," according to the meeting minutes released his week.
DAFC CEO Al Nash recommended the board approve the request to issue bonds "considering Eagle Environmental Construction's experience and ability," the minutes state. Batiste "is an international businessman involved in the development of communities around the world," EEC's website says. The site lists the Whitehall project and construction of Beth Eden Baptist Church sanctuary and offices in Oakland as EEC's current projects.
The industrial parcels that make up the land assemblage for EEC's project must be rezoned to allow for the new mix of uses. EEC Development, an affiliate of Eagle Environmental Construction, filed the rezoning request with the city of Atlanta in February.
EEC selected the site because the area near the Garnett MARTA Station is an "underutilized boulevard that connects Downtown to I-20," its project summary states. "The city of Atlanta finds there is a need to preserve and restore existing, traditional, historic districts, as well as create new pedestrian-oriented commercial nodes."
If plans were approved, EEC would build four residential buildings - a nine-story concrete structure with 189 studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments, and three five-story wood structures with the remainder of the units. Rents would average $1,125-$1,450 per month.
The retail portion, to be developed along Whitehall Street, is designed for a grocery store, dry cleaners, cafe and possibly a jazz nightclub, according to the rezoning request. To satisfy zoning requires that 20 percent of the project be public space, EEC would build a retail plaza with wide, tree-lined sidewalks and landscaped walking trails.
EEC expects to complete the Whitehall mixed-use development by October 2020. But it first must win approval from the Zoning Review Board (ZRB) and Atlanta City Council. The ZRB will take up the request at a May 3 hearing
Prev
Linear Mode
