By Maggie Lee
A would-be developer of a Midtown medical tower and Lidl site revealed details of his plan to a Fulton board Tuesday, while asking for a tax break worth $1.8 million over 10 years.
The company’s plan is for a 7-story medical office building atop a Lidl grocery store on Ponce on the block across from Krispy Kreme, according to Aaron Fortner of Capital City Real Estate, speaking to the board of the Development Authority of Fulton County.
Right now, the Ponce side of the block between Penn and Argonne avenues is heavy on surface parking and comparatively light on businesses.
Capital City proposes a 115,000 square-foot medical office and the Lidl, all atop buried parking on about 1.2 acres of land at Ponce and Penn.
Fortner said getting Lidl can’t happen without a property tax abatement.
“We do need the tax abatement to make this work for them and they will not come into the deal without it,” Fortner told the board.
He said that it’s costly to build buried parking on that site, but yet the building won’t be able to attract medical rents as high as the highest-rent buildings on Peachtree do.
His pitch divided the board.
Board member Steve Broadbent asked about supply and demand for medical office space, and the developer’s argument that there’s high demand for such space in Midtown, but yet the idea that the building can’t fetch the highest rents in the neighborhood.
“If there’s an unmet need for medical office space, it seems like it would get taken up very quickly,” Broadbent said, before his “no” vote.
Board chair Michel Turpeau said the grocery affordability component is what got his attention — the prospect of folks buying food for less than they might pay at, say, Trader Joe’s. Turpeau voted “yes.”
Overall, the abatement got preliminary approval by a 5-3 vote with one abstention. The developer would need to request a second vote to finalize the tax break.
Capital City’s development would also include 59 residential units, but that’s not part of the property that would get a property tax abatement if the deal is finalized with a second Fulton board vote.
Capital City has been working on the plan for more than a year and it’s gone through revisions. One earlier version would have been much more residential. There was some neighborhood chatter about an earlier version perhaps being too tall or creating too much traffic for some neighbors’ liking.
The site is on Midtown Neighbors’ Association’s radar.
Other DAFC business
It was the same approval for a tax break worth $3.4 million to Crescent Communities’ planned residential development at 1330 Fairmont Avenue in Blandtown. The board gave that one preliminary approval in September, a day after Atlanta City Council asked them not to.
Since January, 2019, Atlanta’s and Fulton’s development authorities have given first or final approval to property tax breaks on 44 properties in the city of Atlanta, mainly in Midtown and on the east side. If all 44 properties get built, those are tax breaks worth a total $240 million over 10 years.
Surrounding counties also grant property tax abatements, often much deeper ones that Fulton does.
Technically, these abatements are granted through “lease-purchase bonds,” which give a tax-exempt public agency part ownership of a parcel on paper. The beneficial owner of the property benefits by simply owning a smaller share of the parcel and so getting a property tax break.
Documents:
DAFC fact sheets from meeting of Dec. 8, 2020
So the board approves a $5.5 million tax break for Interlock II and a $3.4 Million tax abatement for a development in Blandtown, both high demand, high rent areas, yet can only muster a 4-3 vote for a mealy $1.8 million tax abatement for a Lidle and medical offices close to Boulevard. Seems like someone has a personal grudge