That's when Mayor Shirley Franklin expects to pick the redeveloper for the 77-year-old, 75% vacant three-winged building that has housed only the Atlanta police department and several other city administrative departments for the past 14 years. Three local developers have submitted bids but no proposals have been received from out-of-state national developers, city staffers confirm for GlobeSt.com.

In the running for one of the most challenging Downtown redevelopment undertakings in decades are local developer Stephen Macauley's Phoenix Group; Liburn, GA developer Emory Morsberger's Ponce Park Group; and local developer Jerrold Miller's Chess Partners. The entire enterprise is expected to take five years to complete, local construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com.

But an unexpected change in the request for proposals drafted earlier in the year by the city has caused a stir among the redevelopment candidates, local brokers tell GlobeSt.com. The mayor is backing a request from local residents to carve a 6.5-acre parking lot out of the total 15-acre City Hall East property for a public park on North Avenue. That means the parking lot will not be part of the final City Hall East property sale.

Developers had hoped to create fast-track retail and apartment projects on the parking lot to generate a quick cash stream to pay for their construction costs as other components of the redevelopment get under way. The mayor has asked the three developer groups to refrain from commenting on the project while the selection process is in progress.

Even if the public park idea gets to the desks of city council members, there is no guarantee it will be approved, or even if the sale of the entire two-million-sf building will get the green light, local planners and consultants intimate with the project, tell GlobeSt.com. "This is a project conceived by the mayor and her credibility is riding on it," a Midtown broker not associated with the project tells GlobeSt.com.

The city has owned the building since 1991 when the late Mayor Maynard Jackson orchestrated the purchase of the two-million-sf property for $12 million or $6 per sf. Area brokers not associated with the project tell GlobeSt.com the winning bidder is not expected to pay more than $3 per sf, or a total $6 million, for the real estate today.