The Atlanta City Council approved a $13 million line of credit to help push forward a deal for Tyler Perry to buy the old Fort McPherson site in southwest Atlanta for a new movie studio. Perry announced his plan to buy 330 acres of the former Army base last summer for $30 million.
Mayor Kasim Reed spoke to the council and urged them to authorize the line of credit because the deal was “about to fall apart” between Perry, the US Army and the city. Reed said an April 30 deadline was fast approaching to make the deal come to fruition.
Reed said 22 acres of the property being purchased by Tyler have been designated as brownfield (meaning possible soil contamination). The Army has agreed to clean up the acreage, but Perry wants to hold off on paying the full purchase price until the work is complete.
The $13 million line of credit would cover the remaining balance of the purchase price while the Army completes remediation work on the brownfield acreage. Once the Army’s work is done, Perry will pay off the remaining balance. Should Perry default, the City of Atlanta would own the entire 488 acre parcel.
“The line of credit would only be activated if Tyler Perry defaulted,” Reed said. “We’d get the whole 488 acres for $13 million. That’s sounds like a pretty good deal for the city.”
Reed said there would be no cost to taxpayers and the studio property would be be back on the city’s property tax rolls. The mayor also said he doubted Perry would default because his current studio near Greenbriar Mall is working at capacity producing films and programming for TNT and OWN.
“If the deal falls through, Perry will go to Douglasville or head south where other studios are being built,” Reed said, referring to acreage Perry had purchased in Douglas County for a possible new studio.
Some of the council members were unhappy that Reed walked the urgent matter into the city council without warning. Councilwoman Felicia Moore wanted to hold off on voting to give the council time to digest the paperwork, but Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms said this wouldn’t have been an issue if the council hadn’t taken a three week recess.
The council ultimately voted to go into executive session. Upon return, there was 11-1 vote in favor of the line of credit with Moore being the lone dissenting vote.
While Perry will own most of the property, the McPherson Implementing Local Redevelopment Authority (MILRA) will retain over 144 acres for economic development purposes along the perimeter of the decommissioned base.
