Atlanta Mayor Confident Agreement Will Be Reached For A New Falcons Stadium

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said that he is “confident that an agreement will be reached to build a new Falcons stadium in the city, despite widespread public opposition to using hotel-motel taxes to subsidize part of the proposed facility’s roughly $1 billion cost,” according to Jeremiah McWilliams of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. Reed said, “I think we’ll get a deal done on the stadium and that we’ll have a world-class stadium in the city of Atlanta.” The first-term mayor also said that he “believed a new stadium would help the city compete for a Major League Soccer team” (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/11). Meanwhile, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Falcons said that it will “take them longer than expected to choose the finalists to design a proposed retractable-roof stadium.” In Atlanta, Tim Tucker in a front-page piece notes the GWCCA and the Falcons “originally planned to select three to five finalists Wednesday from the 10 architectural firms that applied last month for the design job.” But the two entities instead “jointly extended the deadline for the decision on finalists until Jan. 28.” The finalists “will interview with Falcons and GWCCA officials, including Falcons owner Arthur Blank.” The original plan “called for hiring a lead architect by March 15.” GWCCA Communications Dir Jennifer LeMaster said, “We can’t speculate on how this (delay) may affect our March 15 deadline” (ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION, 1/11).

PARKING THE PROPOSALS: In Atlanta, J. Scott Trubey reports four development teams have “pitched their visions for the area around the Braves’ stadium.” The city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, sent out “a request for ideas for how developers might transform 55 acres of land north of the ballpark into a mixed-use sports and entertainment district with year-round activity.” At the request of Invest Atlanta, each of the Turner Field proposals “contains expansion of the downtown streetcar or other transit links, parking decks with at least 10,000 spaces, and a design theme to honor Hank Aaron’s home run record and the history of the Braves.” Trubey outlines each of the four group’s proposals (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/11).