Ressler said that the Hawks and CIM Group are committed to bringing billions in new investment downtownCMI
Hawks Principal Owner & Chair Tony Ressler said that plans to redevelop downtown Atlanta's Gulch will "transform the city, but the complex project requires not only billions of dollars in private funding, but also a substantial public investment to make it a reality," according to J. Scott Trubey of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. Ressler said that the Hawks and their development partners, L.A.-based CIM Group, are "committed to bringing billions in new investment downtown." However, Ressler added that the developers need a "substantial portion of three decades of expected sales taxes and property taxes created by the development to build the infrastructure necessary to serve the site and connect neighborhoods across downtown." But Trubey notes the project will "take convincing a council that so-far appears wary of the commitment." CIM "wants to build a mini-city that could grow to more than 9 million square feet of office space, 1,000 residences, 1,500 hotel rooms and 1 million square feet of retail space." Ressler said of the project, "Do we want what we have? Or do we want to go forward to develop what I do think is 100 percent certain to be a positive to metro Atlanta and to downtown Atlanta more particularly?" Ressler added that downtown "could be much more vibrant, but the Gulch has been 'an anchor' dragging on downtown revitalization." Ressler: "Are the majority of Atlantans going to see an improvement in downtown Atlanta and does this become an engine of growth? That is our bet. We believe that at our core" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 9/5).
