Turner Field, once an 1996 Summer Olympics venue and since then home to the Atlanta Braves, is being sold to Georgia State University and its development partners for $30 million, in a deal expected to close by the end of the year.
We have more details at our sister site, Football Stadium Digest.
Real estate developers Carter and Oakwood Development are planning to work with Georgia State on a new mixed-use development (apartments, single-family homes, classroom space, collegiate ballpark, student housing, grocery store) surrounding the ballpark, while also converting it to a football stadium for the 2017 season. This would be the third use for the facility: It was constructed for the 1996 Summer Olympics and then downsized to accommodate the Braves, who are wrapping up their tenure there at the end of the season.
One interesting part of the purchase: a requirement that the sports history at the site be maintained and honored. The playing field from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium is marked on the Turner Field parking lot, and the location where Henry Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run landed on April 8, 1974 is marked. Georgia State officials say the field, wall and memorial will be incorporated to a new 1,500-seat ballpark to be built next to Turner Field.
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