The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Board to consider tax breaks for three projects
Abatements combine for $40M in tax savings.
A Fulton County agency will consider granting tax breaks to a trio of projects, including a data center pitched for a former Westside rail yard and two Beltline residential projects.
The Development Authority of Fulton County (DAFC) will consider three resolutions at its Tuesday meeting totaling more than $40 million in tax savings for their developers. It’s the busiest agenda so far this year for the authority, which has faced intense scrutiny for doling out tax savings to developers in hot neighborhoods where critics contend they are not needed.
Development authorities play significant roles in recruiting jobs and investment, but critics say DAFC often offers tax breaks in exchange for few public benefits or for projects that would have been built anyway. A 2021 Atlanta Journal-constitution investigation found DAFC provided preliminary or final approval for more than $328 million in tax breaks in a three-year period, largely in fast-growing areas like the Beltline or Midtown.
An investigation that year by the AJC also found a culture of loose financial controls at the authority, leading to an overhaul of DAFC’S board and board policies and directors who passed fewer tax breaks.
But in recent months, the DAFC board has again considered awards that have proven controversial, particularly within the city limits.
No request created more controversy than Quality Technology Services asking the DAFC in April for $45 million in tax savings for a data center expansion that was already under construction. QTS withdrew the request after stark public backlash, including more than 100 written comments in opposition.
The largest of the three projects to be considered Tuesday is a data center campus at the Tilford Yard property, a former railyard owned by CSX.
Three affiliates of the data center developer Edged Energy are seeking more than $32 million in property tax savings for three-building data center valued at $1.5 billion.
When CSX owned the property, it was exempt from property taxes. The new development will generate more than $68 million in property taxes to the city, Fulton County and city schools over the next decade after taking the tax abatement into account.
The affiliates of Edged Energy, which did not respond to the AJC’S request for comment, acquired the 55-acre site in March for $94.1 million from Atlanta-based TPA Group, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
The data center is proposed to have a low carbon-footprint due to “energy-efficient equipment.”
DAFC Chairman Marty Turpeau said Edged Energy’s development “would be designed to use zero water for cooling and advanced electrical systems to minimize the environmental footprint.”
The developer plans to spend $37 million on infrastructure improvements and tax savings would be passed along to tenants within the data center, according to a DAFC document.
Maple Multifamily Land SE, a subsidiary of Trammell Crow Residential, is returning to DAFC seeking a $4.3 million tax abatement for a housing project along the Beltline’s Eastside trail. The
project was deferred from consideration last month.
The developer plans 230 apartments and a 337-space parking deck on a 1.8-acre plot along Edgewood Avenue and Ezzard Street. The project also includes preserving two historic buildings.
In exchange for the tax abatement, the developer said it will reserve 23 apartments for residents who make 60% of the area median income, a minimum requirement for new construction near the Beltline. DAFC Executive Director Sarah-elizabeth Langford previously told the AJC that her office was in discussions with the developer to increase
the number of affordable units by 25%, but that was not reflected in Tuesday’s agenda.
However, Turpeau said the developer agreed to provide the affordable units “in perpetuity” rather than having them revert to market-rate units when the 10-year abatement expires. Trammell Crow did not respond to requests for comment.
Woodfield Acquisition, an arm of Atlanta-based Woodfield Development, is requesting about $3.5 million in tax savings for a mixed-use project along the Beltline’s Westside trail near Murphy Crossing.
Woodfield has proposed 326 apartments, 20,000 square feet of commercial
space and 1,500 square feet of co-working and community space.
A fifth of the apartments will be reserved for affordable housing, a third more than Beltline requirements. At least 5% of affordable units will be held for residents making between 30% and 50% of the area median income, while the other 15% will go to those making 80% or less of that figure.
Woodfield did not respond to a request for comment, but Turpeau said the company needs the tax savings in order to make the affordable units possible and is “committed with DAFC’S assistance to go above and beyond what is required under applicable law.”