State Shelves Land-Buying Plan to Lure Ford

ATLANTA-The deal isn’t entirely dead, but the Georgia Properties Commission has shelved plans to buy about 1,500 acres for an estimated $13 million in Morgan County to interest Ford Motor Co. in building a $1-bllion manufacturing plant, area industrial real estate brokers familiar with the undertaking tell GlobeSt.com.

The state agency had an option to purchase the land from Missouri-based Jefferson Lamar Banks in September and again in October but allowed the options to expire, according to brokers and agency sources. A second site in Meriwether County, 63 miles south of Downtown Atlanta off Interstate 85, has also been ruled out for now, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

“The frustrating part of all this is that Ford has never formally said it was looking for a new plant site at all to replace its existing location in Hapeville,” an Atlanta industrial broker close to the land search activities tells GlobeSt.com.