Court Ruling Clears $1.9 Billion in Public Money for Atlanta Mega-Project

"The city of Atlanta can issue bonds backed by future sales tax dollars to help support an up to $5 billion redevelopment of downtown Atlanta’s Gulch," reports J. Scott Trubey.

A July 3 ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Robert McBurney clears the way for the "developer CIM Group to begin development of a mini-city in a 40-acre dead zone of parking lots and weedy rail beds between Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Five Points MARTA station," according to Trubey.

The ruling allows the city of Atlanta to issue bonds, "to be repaid by future sales tax revenue generated on the Gulch site." The bonds will be used to "fund vital infrastructure and development of the project," which will be renamed as Centennial Yards.

The decision is controversial in Atlanta, where project opponents say that revenue projections for the development don't prove that sales tax revenue will be enough to cover the costs of the bonds. The Atlanta City Council voted in November to provide $1.9 billion in public money to support the project.