Hardie-Hill Plans 1M-SF Park in Braselton

ATLANTA-Actress Kim Basinger couldn’t pull it off in the early 1900s but Atlanta developers Eben Hardie and Mal Hill are confident they can develop a one million-sf, $22 million distribution center on a parcel of land once part of Basinger’s 1,800-acre domain.

Hardie, a former Duke-Weeks Realty executive, and Hill plan to buy 63 acres along GA 124 in Braselton, GA from Gwinnett County land speculators Wayne Mason and Frank Hanna Jr. to develop two distribution centers about 50 miles northeast of Downtown Atlanta. The deal is scheduled to close in July but the price hasn’t been disclosed.

It probably will be far less than the $20 million Basinger and her partner, Ameritech pension fund, paid for the land at $11,111 per acre or 26 cents per sf, area industrial real estate brokers familiar with the property tell GlobeSt.com. County real estate records show Mason and Hanna paid Basinger-Ameritech $4.3 million or $2,389 per acre (five cents per sf) for the dirt. Basinger had planned to develop music and recording studios on the property but a recession, almost immediately after she purchased the property, killed the plan.