General Motors officials
announced Thursday they will accept bids for their closing Doraville
assembly plant through July 12 and expect to announce a decision on a
sale by October or November. The auto maker would be "closely aligned with the interests of local
governments" in evaluating redevelopment proposals for the 60-year-old
plant, GM representatives said at a joint press conference with DeKalb
County and Doraville elected officials. DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones
and Doraville mayor Ray Jenkins have both talked of transforming the
plant into a mixed-use village like Atlanta's Atlantic Station or
building a high-tech or medical research facility. GM backs that vision for the site. "The size of the property [165 acres] and its
location pretty well determine it will be mixed use," Zehnder said.
"It's much too large to support one use." Jones predicted Thursday that redevelopment of the Doraville plant would be "much more dynamic than Atlantic Station." It's the first time mass transit has been located so close to a closed GM plant. PD/KT | AJC | 6/19/2008 DS | ABC | 6/19/2008 optional long-winded opinionation in the continuation
_________ But, will it have an arch? Decatur residents would find this to be an easier drive, most of the time. It probably would also increase the county's tax base, which should reduce our county taxes. This smells like great PR work. We'll have
to wait about five years to see how it really turns out, and how safe
the development is. The cost of gas is driving people back
inside the perimeter, making every ITP acre go up in value as values
generally drop in counties further out. Many people are dropping their
asking prices lately, just to get nibbles [if you've tried to sell a
house lately, you'll snicker at that AJC report that 30030 property
values are up 6.6%], but when the economic slowdown is over, and if gas
prices stay high, we should see our property values head up again, at
the rate we saw over the past 10 years. If you bought a McMansion out in Bartow county, coming back ITP is going to cost you on both ends, if gas prices stay high. Who remembers the song "Doraville" by ARS. Things have changed since then.
