165-acre GM site for sale
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
 As the day nears when the assembly line will be silenced for good at the General Motors plant in Doraville, the next phase of the property’s life is picking up steam.
At the end of September, production at the $65 million plant – built in 1942 – will cease. By Nov. 1, the plant will be closed and more than 1,100 employees will be gone.
But GM representatives said they hope to have the property sold by the end of the year.
The Detroit-based automaker has hired a real estate marketing firm, CB Richard Ellis Inc., to help handle offers for the 165-acre site that stretches between Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Peachtree Road inside I-285.
“The property is indeed for sale, and we’ve hired CBRE to help us market that property,” said Dan Flores, corporate spokesman for GM. “We’ve already begun taking bids,” said Flores, who anticipates significant interest in the land.
According to county tax records, the plant complex is worth more than $65 million. It pays the county about $1 million a year in property taxes – much of it on the machinery and equipment used inside the plant.
The land is valued at more than $23 million and GM has a sheet metal stamping plant on the site worth more than $5 million.
In 2005, GM announced it would shutter the plant. When in full production with two round-the-clock shifts, the site employed more than 3,000 people and produced more than 200,000 minivans a year.
According to former Doraville mayor pro tem and councilman Jason Anavitarte, GM taxes make up nearly 10 percent of the city’s $12 million budget.
He said it would take some time before the property is that productive again.
“It’ll be about seven, eight or 10 years of painful transition,” said Anavitarte, who now lives in Dallas, Ga., with his wife and newborn child. “From demolition to cleanup, zoning, development, construction and sales, it will at least take that much time.”
Anavitarte said he’s concerned because the city has no master plan and its zoning laws date to 1986.
Mayor Ray Jenkins, who said GM provides more like $800,000 a year for his city of about 12,000 residents, acknowledged it could be a painful transition between GM and any new development.
“We will probably lose revenue for a short period – two, three or four years – but in the long run, we’ll make it up.”
That’s because Doraville, GM and DeKalb County all appear to want one of the largest chunks of real estate inside the Perimeter to be turned into mixed-use behemoth not unlike Atlantic Station in Midtown.
A 2006 study conducted by Georgia Institute of Technology concluded the site, which is connected by MARTA, is ideal for “residential, retail and office space” uses. The plan calls for a pedestrian-friendly subdivision, town center, greenspace and possibly even an arena–all near retail and office units.
The best-case scenario is any new development could more than triple revenue now received from the site, said Anavitarte. “But that’s years away,” he said.
Another consideration for any future development is the environmental impact of the plant, which has worked extensively with paints and metals at the site for more than 65 years.
“We are conducting an environmental study, but it’s part of a normal course of business practices we follow,” said Flores, GM’s spokesman. “On any property we’re going to sell, we conduct detailed soil samples and ground water testing.”
Jenkins, who said he is pleased so far with GM’s “common vision” for the future of the site, anticipates a meeting among the city, county and the automaker soon to further discuss the future.
“I hope they [potential developers] can get there and get going soon.”
|
