Georgia In Talks To Buy, Preserve 14,000 Acres Slated For Development Near Planned Factories

The Georgia state government is in talks to acquire a massive swath of undeveloped land in North Georgia with the goal of preventing developers from transforming the wildlife and recreation area into a mix of warehouses, commercial buildings and residential properties.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is in talks with the land's longtime family ownership to purchase 14,100 acres and preserve them as conservation and recreational space, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. Georgia leases the acreage from the family company, The Aubrey Corp., and operates it as the Pine Log Wildlife Management Area, which offers 23 miles of hiking trails and hunting land, according to the ABC.

The Aubrey Corp. has owned the site, which totals 19,500 acres mainly in Bartow County, some 50 miles north of Downtown Atlanta off Interstate 75, for almost a century and recently launched a rezoning application for 16,500 areas for a master-planned community that would include 16,500 residential units, 800 acres of commercial development, 16.5M SF of industrial space and nearly 4,000 acres for mining, according to a proposal filed with the Department of Community Affairs.

Lee & Associates partner Jim Ramseur is marketing the site on behalf of Aubrey, and told Bisnow that the family would prefer to sell the land to the state, which has leased it for more than 40 years. The DNR is looking for ways to raise the additional funds to meet the family's (undisclosed) asking price, Ramseur said.

"We are still working through our negotiations with the state. The issue is the Department of Natural Resources has limited funds," Ramseur said. "It's a combination of how much money they can raise. That's where the discrepancy is. They're willing to pay us X, but X is not fair market value."

Ramseur said the family also is negotiating with developers to buy portions of the site for commercial projects. The property sits in the same county, along the same I-75 corridor, where Hyundai and SK Innovation are planning an electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility and QCells is developing a $2.5B solar panel factory, combined bringing 5,000 new jobs.

If the state does purchase the land, more than 2,000 acres separate from the state's acquisition would be developed commercially over 15 years, Ramseur said. 

The proposed overlay rezoning, called a planned green space and development district, is scheduled to go before the Bartow County Planning Commission on March 27 and then the Bartow County Commissioner the following month.

"The family very much wants to sell it to the state because it's been under lease to the state for 47 years. That's the ultimate goal," Ramseur said.