City Council approves Beltline bond issuance
October 29, 2008 at 5:42 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsCongratulations, fellow citizen! If things go according to plan, come Friday at 10 a.m. you’ll be a co-owner of 66 acres of prime property in Northeast Atlanta.
The Atlanta City Council today approved 9-1 the issuance of $64.5 million of Beltline TAD bonds. Councilmember Felicia Moore was the lone vote against the deal.
Atlanta Beltline Inc. Finance Director Richard Lutch says the project will meet the Oct. 31 deadline set by Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason and settle the $45 million debt Mason is owed for property near Piedmont Park.
Beltline leaders will also use $3.5 million of the bond funds to buy out the remaining stake in the property held by Barry Real Estate and Ben Rainey, its private partners in a joint venture that was created to purchase the land from Mason late last year. Beltline leaders must then must transfer the property to the Atlanta Development Authority. (The land must be owned by a public agency to meet tax-exempt bond regulations.)
After the vote, Tax Allocation District Advisory Committee Chair Eugene Bowens, Sr. said that the citizens’ group — while supportive of the deal — still feels it’s not being involved enough in how funds from the TAD bonds are used. By law, the committee is charged with ensuring those public funds are spent in a “fair and equitable manner.” Numerous times in the past — most notably when Beltline leaders decided to spend a large chunk of funds to pay off the Mason property in affluent Northeast Atlanta — the committee has said they have been kept out of the loop. He said TADAC members were only notified of today’s bond deal at a meeting last night with Beltline leaders.
This development raises many questions, such as what direction the project takes now and where it will focus its energy, how the city plans to act on property that it must rezone if it plans to sell, and how future allocations and deals will be handled. Feel free to chime in below if you have any thoughts.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
[...] a guy goes to City Hall for two hours and a shitstorm erupts. Well, here’s our take on what [...]
October 30th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Do I have this right? $64.5M in bonds will be issued. Wayne Mason gets $45M, leaving $19.5. Ben Rainey (who failed to do what he was supposed to do) gets $3.5M, leaving $16M. Subtract debt service and few other BeltLine loans, and what-if anything–is left to support the promises of the BeltLine? Are our tax dollars being directed to the highest and best uses? Is a scam going on in plain view and everyone is asleep at the switch? City Council members: Hello?? Are you awake? Are you alive? Are you aware that you are all up for election in November 2009?
October 30th, 2008 at 8:17 am
The City and the Beltline are throwing good money after bad. They paid $66 million for the Wayne Mason land in 2007 even though the real estate and financial crises were already in full swing. (Wayne Mason had bought the land for $24 million just a few years before!) The Beltline had no commitments to finance its purchase. Now the Beltline will have to use almost all of the TAD bond money to pay off the loan. What will the taxpayers get? Transit is fast becoming a distant illusion. Affordable housing is treated as a step-child. Long time residents around the Beltline are being displaced. High density, inappropriate development will soon be crammed down the throats of residential neighborhoods. But well-connected developers are making out like bandits! And the Beltline PR machine is running at full throttle. Why isn’t anyone minding the store? Howard Shook? Mary Norwood? Shirley Franklin? John Woodham?