Also planned separately is a reconfiguration and facelift of the city's premier Peachtree Street corridor, city staffers confirm for GlobeSt.com.

At a cost of $4 million, the city is buying back the 50-year Lakewood Fairgrounds lease from Filmworks USA which negotiated the lease in 1984 when Andrew Young was mayor and Franklin was the city's chief operating officer. A film production site planned on the land was never developed. A similar deal fell through in 2000 when locally based music producer Dallas Austin and his associates couldn't redevelop the property as a $12-million video and music production studio, Downtown brokers familiar with that proposed project tell GlobeSt.com.

Although the Lakewood Fairgrounds site surrounds the Lakewood Amphitheater, the amphitheater is owned under a sublease and won't be affected by the proposed redevelopment, according to brokers familiar with the city's proposal.

The city is preparing requests for redevelopment proposals to send to area and regional developers, city staffers say. The city envisions a mix of residential, office and retail space in the redevelopment.

On the Peachtree corridor proposal, meanwhile, Franklin named Tom Bell, CEO of Cousins Properties Inc., and Egbert Perry, CEO of the Integral Group, to oversee a committee that will determine how to finance and improve the image of Peachtree as a local beacon of commerce.

The mayor envisions the revitalized Peachtree corridor running from Phipps Plaza to the complex of state and local governments located south of Marta's Five Points rail station. A streetcar transportation station would include the 12-mile Peachtree line from the West End neighborhood southwest of Downtown, up Peachtree Street and Peachtree Road to Buckhead.