Proposal calls for mixed-use development at Fort Gillem site in Clayton County
Fulton County Daily Report
January 3, 2008
Andy Peters
McKenna Long & Aldridge said its partners Robert E. Tritt and Steven J. Labovitz are advisers to Cousins Properties Inc. on the redevelopment of the Fort Gillem Army base. Cousins and its business partners were selected by the city of Forest Park last month as master developer of the base.
Fort Gillem, in Clayton County, was selected for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission. The Army is scheduled to vacate the vast majority of Fort Gillem by September 2011. The military will retain a small portion after the rest is handed over to the city.
To redevelop the base, Cousins formed a partnership with LNR Property Corp. of Miami and Benham Cos. of Oklahoma City. A proposal submitted by the partnership in July calls for Fort Gillem to be turned into a mixed-use development, including residential, retail and office buildings.
Other U.S. military bases that have been closed through the BRAC process have been redeveloped into mixed-use properties. The former Fort McClellan near Anniston, Ala., an 18,000-acre base that was shuttered in 1999, is now home to apartment buildings, hotels, colleges, office buildings, golf courses and a wildlife refuge.
In addition to Tritt and Labovitz, other McKenna Long attorneys working on the Fort Gillem matter are of counsel Rosalind R. Newell and associate Sharice V. Owens.
Tritt is co-chairman of McKenna Long's military bases and communities practice group, which includes attorneys and lobbyists based in Atlanta and Washington, including former U.S. Sen. Zell Miller.
Fred E. Bryant is executive director and staff counsel for the Forest Park/Fort Gillem Local Redevelopment Authority and is working on the project on behalf of the authority.