Take a look at Fort Gillem’s progress eight months after purchase (Atlanta: 2015)

[demonta4]

Here’s a partial breakdown of Monday’s update. The rest of the update will be found in Saturday’s issue of Clayton News.
Marketing — Marketing Fort Gillem in business publications such as the Atlanta Business Chronicle has attracted “four active prospects” possibly interested in setting up shop at Gillem, Bryant said.
“I can’t give you names, because that’s the rule,” he said. “That’s the way they are, they’re all prospects right now.”
The prospects are looking to purchase 10 to 15 acres each. Bryant said that broke down to anywhere from 65,000 square feet to about 150,000 square feet of warehouse space.
“They’re in various stages of discussion with our marketing team right now,” he said. “But hopefully we’ll get some good news about them in the near future.”
Bryant said there’s a list of about eight other prospects who have either rejected the city or been rejected by it.
“Generally speaking, we reject them if what they would do is not compatible with what we are trying to do with Gillem Logistics Center right now,” he said. “We’re trying to recruit the big companies — the Krogers and companies like that.”
He said there may be “a home” for smaller companies at Gillem at some point, but that it wouldn’t be wise to take a few acres away from a larger company that could provide more jobs.
Moreland Avenue — The development partners who have been working with the city and the URA to market the property will close on 50 acres in Northeastern portion of the property in March of April.
Bryant said the partners are offered portions of the land for free or at a reduced price as part of the deal for helping the city market Gillem. He said the partners did not exercise their option to get the 50 acres of land for free.
“They are starting demolition as we speak out there,” Bryant said. “And they’re also going to be responsible for demolition of the old building out here on Main Street.
The partners plan to construct a roughly 860-square-foot building that will be visible from the road on the northeastern portion of the property. Kroger will lie on the western portion.
Bryant said the partners hope the building will attract either a buyer or a leasing tenant.
Hood Avenue — The construction of Hood Avenue to access Gillem is rolling out in three phases.
Bryant said phase I of the construction is on the portion of the road that goes onto Kroger’s property and includes the widening of Hood Avenue to four lanes. He said Southeastern Site Development, the contractor for the road’s first phase, has the project rolling out on time.
The URA agreed during a special called meeting Jan. 21 to pay Brad Cole $2.8 million to contract phase II of the Hood Avenue project after a heated debate Jan. 15 about whether to start the bidding process over with better advertising.
Phase II of the road will wind through the rest of Gillem before phase III realigns with Rateree Drive in Lake City to become four lanes out to Forest Parkway.
Check Saturday’s issue of Clayton News for an update on Gillem’s finances, vapor intrusion studies, the Park at Gillem and utilities.

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Take a look at Gillem’s progress eight months after purchase | Clayton News Daily

[arjay57]

Impressive!

[demonta4]

Money — Bryant said Gillem is right on track financially.
“If you remember, when Kroger purchased their property, they paid us more than we had to pay the Army,” he said.
That money was kept in accounts to be used by the URA and the city. Bryant said the account used to make payments on Gillem to the Army has “more than enough” money in it for Gillem’s next two payments — which aren’t due for the next two years.
Bryant said the account used to pay for Gillem’s infrastructure is also on track, and noted that the infrastructure account is not being used to pay for Hood Avenue.
“That’s a special account we set up with Kroger,” he said.
Instead, Bryant said the infrastructure account is used to “take care of normal things you have to do as a property owner, like utility payments and stuff like that.”

Vapor Intrusion Studies — The Army has been looking into potentially polluted underground water plumes that reach out from beneath Fort Gillem for about a year.
Army scientists are in the process of testing homes in the area for traces of pollution that may have evaporated from the ground water into the air. If the scientists determine the air is polluted because of Army activity, they are prepared to install ventilation systems in the buildings.
But Bryant said those instances are proving rare.
“The good news is they’re starting to find that a lot of what they thought were maybe bad air in some homes, they found is not bad air — not caused by the Army,” he said. “It’s caused by something else in the home.”
Bryant said that’s good news because it means less residents are actually at risk and because ventilation system installation would tend to bring home values down.
News of the potentially dangerous air and the perceived slow pace of the intrusion studies caused some disagreement between the Army and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It was rumored around October that the EPA was considering putting Gillem on the Superfund list — or list of national contaminated properties.
If the land is designated as a national hazardous waste site, EPA would become the lead agency working with the Army to clean Gillem instead of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division.
That dynamic would not be beneficial to Forest Park’s plans for the property, Bryant said in a previous Clayton News article.
He said the city has asked Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) to help with the tensions.
“We’ve asked Senator Isakson’s help to make sure that the Army and EPA remember the community has a real important interest here and please don’t ignore it,” Bryant said.

Park at Gillem — The Park at Gillem is a collection of about 125 multi-family homes the Army used for housing on Moreland Avenue. Bryant said the city recently had these appraised so it can know what the fair market value is in case Forest Park wants to buy out the homes for further development.
Utilities — Bryant said the Clayton County Water Authority has recently installed a new water pipe and a new sewer is also being installed.
Atlanta Gas and Light is in the process of installing new gas lines and Georgia Power is installing new electricity.
“All with the goal of getting us off the old, Archean, falling-apart Army systems that need to be done away with,” Bryant said. “So, those will all be done in time for Kroger to open in the fall.”
Kroger plans to open its new facility in September.

Here's the rest of the article

[AcidSnake]

I hope the leadership of the City of Forest Park aren't in so much of a rush to develop the Ft Gillem property...that they would risk the lives and health of any present and future citizens who may potentially come in contact with the property.

I know I would not like the thought of standing on property that could potentially turn my lungs into liquid.