As part of the deal, the city will pay quarry tenant Vulcan Materials Co. of Birmingham, AL $25 million to terminate its 20-year lease with Fulton County by 2008. The net price of the park land equates to $40.2 million or $293,431 per acre ($6.74 per sf), area brokers and marketers tell GlobeSt.com. County staffers tell GlobeSt.com Vulcan pays its lease monthly by providing 3,600 tons of gravel to the county's construction department.
Fulton commissioners rejected the city's opening offer of $11 million earlier this year and asked $20 million for the quarry site. The $15.2-million number was a compromise. Ray Weeks, chairman, Beltline Partnership Inc., represented the city in the land deal.
Another aspect of the hard-ball deal involved the city agreeing to provide Fulton County with 175 beds in the 1,300-bed Atlanta City Detention Center to ease overcrowding at the Fulton jail, brokers attending the public meeting tell GlobeSt.com. Fulton commissioners asked for 500 beds but had to settle for the lesser amount after representatives of Mayor Shirley Franklin disclosed 175 beds were all that are available. Atlanta leases 500 beds to US agencies to house federal prisoners. The remainder of the beds are used by inmates arrested by the Atlanta Police Department.
The city also is negotiating with nearby property owners to assemble a minimum 350 acres to add to the 137-acre site for a public park and a drinking water reservoir, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The park is to be called Westside Park and would be part of the planned $2.5-billion, 22-mile Beltline redevelopment undertaking being pushed by the city.
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