Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Wednesday he plans to soon pitch a proposal to have the Atlanta Housing Authority buy the Atlanta Civic Center.
Reed made the announcement at a meeting of the Atlanta City Council Finance/Executive Committee meeting, saying that council could see the proposal in the coming two weeks.
“I think you all will be pleased,” Reed said without offering any details.
Reed announced in 2015 that he was seeking a deal with Houston developer Weingarten Realty to buy the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center for $30 million. The sale of the aging facility had been part of a push by the city to bring mixed-use development and more affordable housing to the area that is just steps from the former Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter.
But in October Reed said the deal was dead.
“We couldn’t come to terms that were acceptable to the city,” Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I felt the deal had dragged on and was unwilling to continue to engage in a negotiation. Either they wanted to purchase it or not. That’s where we ended up.”
City Councilman Alex Wan said Wednesday he is intrigued by the idea of selling the facility to the AHA.
“I look forward to the discussion around the Civic Center,” he told Reed. “That’s good news.”
Story is developing.
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FROM 2016: City leaders want to sell Civic Center
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