Prominent African-American Firm May Redevelop Fort Mac

One of Atlanta’s leading African-American commercial real estate companies may be playing a major role in redeveloping .

H.J. Russell & Company is part of a joint venture that has submitted a proposal to redevelop the entire 488-acre site (Carter USA, based in Midtown, is Russell’s partner).

Besides the Carter Russell proposal, another bid has been submitted by a joint venture between Cousins Properties, The Integral Group and Forest City Enterprises.

A selection committee has already recommended the authority choose the Cousins/Integral/Forest City project, and the McPherson Redevelopment Authority is scheduled to make its final selection within the next week.

Russell was founded in 1962 by Herman J. Russell, one of Atlanta’s first black commercial real estate executives. Since then, the company has developed some of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, including the Lakewood Amphitheatre; the Georgia Dome; Turner Field; and Philips Arena. Recently, the company has been active in several developments around the Castleberry Hill community.

Herman J. Russell still serves as chairman of the company, while son Michael Russell serves as CEO. Another son, Jerome Russell, is president of real estate development, and is the company’s point man on the Fort McPherson redevelopment.

The Carter Russell plan for the area calls for bringing a wide variety of tenants into the area, including science-technology; the motion picture industry; aviation; logistics; and data centers.

“Fort McPherson is very unique in this day and age, because you have all this acreage in the middle of an urban area,” said Vaughn Irons, CEO of APD Solutions, which is spearheading Carter/Russell’s proposals to redevelop Fort McPherson’s surrounding neighborhoods.

“We can’t redevelop this site without reinvesting in the communities around the area,” he said.

Specifically, Irons wants to create a private equity investment fund that would raise $100 million to rebuild the southwest Atlanta communities around the property.

“We’re going to acquire vacant and foreclosed homes, make repairs to existing homes, and stimulate and create job training,” Irons said. “There are foreclosure problems in the 30310 and 30311 zip codes, but if those communities were supported a little bit, they could be great places to live.”