Imagine Downtown Inc., an affiliate of the Atlanta Development Authority and Central Atlanta Progress, announced Tuesday that it had closed on the first New Market Tax Credits loan for Aerotropolis Atlanta, a project adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that will include a regional job and retail complex.
Using $30 million of tax credit authority, IDI provided a loan to the developer Jacoby Development Inc. toward phase one of Aerotropolis, a $96 million project that will demolish all buildings and complete environmental remediation of the site, formerly the Ford Atlanta Assembly Plant. Eventually the project will consist of up to 6.5 million square feet for offices, retail space, a hotel, and a conference center to be built over several phases.
Aerotropolis Atlanta also will serve as the nearest parking location to the planned new international terminal projected to open in 2011.
At full buildout, it is estimated that the project will create more than 10,000 jobs. Aerotropolis Atlanta is one of the largest shovel-ready projects in the Atlanta region, officials said.
IDI was awarded an allocation of $80 million in New Market Tax Credits from the Treasury Department in 2007 and 2008. The nationwide initiative is designed to leverage up to $15 billion of private investment from allocations of New Market Tax Credits in the United States’ most impoverished urban and rural communities.
