A newly-formed group out of Atlanta is proposing that the federal government assist local communities by taking troubled commercial real estate properties off the hands of banks and convert them into public parks. An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes how Michael Messner, a Georgia Tech alum commissioned the school’s Research Institute to investigate ways to help Atlanta avert a coming commercial real estate crisis.
Roughly $3 billion of the $5 billion proposed for metro Atlanta would buy land. The rest would go for demolition, design, construction and maintenance of the parks. If $3 billion were spent just inside the Perimeter, it could create 15 Piedmont Parks, Georgia Tech says. Roughly 13,000 acres of green space outside the Perimeter could also be created.
But parks are only part of the package. Say, for example, 100 acres of blighted property is bought. Maybe 30 acres is set aside for a park, the rest to be developed later. A park, Georgia Tech notes, increases the value of surrounding property.
“So maybe in five years, when the market bounces back, that property that was sold for $20,000 an acre may be worth $100,000 an acre,” said Caravati, adding that the not-for-profit would control the properties until they’re turned into parks or redeveloped.
Kevin Caravati, a researcher at Georgia Tech noted that “the original stimulus money took care of the big banks by bailing out their paper assets. But we haven’t taken care of the physical assets — the vacant Circuit City store, strip mall, apartment complex or warehouse.”
Why not take some of these properties and help them become drivers (via parks) for smarter development of our cities?