Webstar Seeks Tax Break For $750M Forge Atlanta Development

Fulton County is weighing whether to approve a nearly $10M tax break and bond financing for a massive development proposed by a company whose previous project filings and public claims have drawn scrutiny, as previously reported by Bisnow.

The tax break and $223.7M bond would go to support the development of Forge Atlanta, a $756M mixed-use development along Whitehall Street between Castleberry Hill and Downtown Atlanta. The project is being proposed by Forge Atlanta Asset Management, an entity majority-owned by Webstar Technology Group, a penny stock firm whose sole project is Forge Atlanta.

The Development Authority of Fulton County is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a letter of inducement, the first step toward the approval of bond financing, a mechanism that would allow the developers to save $9.7M of property taxes over 10 years for the first phase of the project. 

Webstar owns 80% of the development venture, Forge Atlanta Asset Management LLC, while Urbantec Development Partners — led by CBRE Vice President Jae Kim — owns the other 20%, according to Webstar's latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The inducement wouldn't automatically grant Forge Atlanta Asset Management an actual bond, Develop Fulton Executive Director Sarah-Elizabeth Langford told Bisnow. Instead, it would demonstrate the incentives the county would be willing to grant for the project if it comes to fruition.

“At this stage, the Forge Atlanta project is only being reviewed for potential property tax incentive eligibility. There is no financial liability or exposure for Fulton County,” Langford said in a statement. “Any potential benefit from an incentive would be entirely contingent upon the developer building and advancing the project.”

Atlanta-based Webstar and Urbantec plan to build luxury condominiums and a hospitality- and entertainment-driven complex with approximately 300 hotel rooms, meeting space and 60,500 SF of retail and entertainment space, according to Develop Fulton documents. 

A 443K SF portion of the site, which spans 362 and 363 Fair St. and 359, 375 and 385 Whitehall St., would also include green spaces and outdoor areas for recreation and social gatherings, including parks, plazas, community lounges and walkable retail corridors, according to the documents.

The bond wouldn't cover the condo portion of development, which carries an estimated investment of more than $532M, according to the Develop Fulton filing. 

The developers estimate the project would have close to a $7.4B economic impact and create 2,100 temporary jobs and 900 full-time jobs.

Plans for the mixed-use project emerged in March when Webstar announced it was in talks to build a $1.2B mixed-use project near Downtown Atlanta, partially financed through the sale of crypto tokens. Bisnow reported at the time that Webstar was in talks to purchase the 10-acre Forge site.

In June, Webstar and Urbantec placed the 10-acre site under contract for $33M. The sale is scheduled to close in November, according to Webstar's SEC filings. 

The site's owner is Gourmet Foods International CEO Russell McCall, who took it over in 2023 from Kim via foreclosure after Urbantec's plans to build a life sciences- and technology-focused mixed-use campus fell apart.

The bond application is among the most tangible signs of progress for a Webstar development as the company's executives have been pursuing a large-scale development in the Southeast for five years to no avail. Its development ambitions have left a corporate paper trail that securities law experts said raised serious red flags, a Bisnow investigation found.

Those include securities filings that were riddled with spelling errors, executives with unverifiable résumés and a lack of discernible experience with large-scale projects, and connection to a developer fined by the SEC for allegedly defrauding his investors. 

Webstar last year announced that it was developing a $650M amusement park in Commerce, Georgia, called Bear Village, a project that was set to encompass a water park, hotels, timeshares, retail shops and a 15,000-gallon freshwater aquarium. 

It had a land deal in place for the project, but the deal collapsed, and Webstar never disclosed that fact to investors. 

“We have redirected our efforts to close on Forge Atlanta because it is a fully entitled and shovel ready project,” Webstar General Counsel Donald Keer said in an email in August. “We are in negotiations for another parcel in Commerce, but we have not come to agreeable terms yet.”

Webstar CEO Ricardo Haynes declined to comment for this story, instead sending a letter accusing Bisnow of past inaccuracies. He did not provide specifics or respond to the questions submitted for this report.

Develop Fulton is scheduled to vote on the bond financing at its 2 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.