Penny Stock Developer Closes On Site For 8.4M SF Atlanta Megaproject

The development team that hopes to build the largest mixed-use development in the history of Downtown Atlanta now officially owns the site for its ambitions.

Webstar Technology Group, a penny stock company whose previous project filings and public claims have drawn scrutiny, announced Wednesday it had closed on a 10-acre vacant parcel that once housed the headquarters of Gourmet Foods International.

The land, on the corner of Ted Turner Drive Southwest and Whitehall Street Southwest, was purchased by Forge Atlanta Asset Management LLC, a joint venture between Webstar and Urbantec Development Partners, which previously controlled the site before losing it to foreclosure. 

With the purchase, Webstar executives said they expect to line up financing in 2026 for the $756M first phase of Forge Atlanta, which would include a 300-room hotel, 600 luxury condominium units and 60,500 SF of retail and entertainment space, according to a news release. 

On the Forge Atlanta website, Webstar says it will ultimately build a more than 8.4M SF mixed-use destination valued at more than $3.7B.

Construction is expected to start next year, although the company has yet to finalize financing for the project.

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month pegged the agreed-upon price for the property at $33M. No final price was mentioned in the press release, and Webstar CEO Ricardo Haynes declined to provide additional details when reached by text message.

Webstar is required to pay Urbantec, which is led by CBRE Vice President Jae Kim, $3M upon closing, according to the filing. Webstar had $7,789 of cash on hand by the end of September and no revenue, according to its most recent quarterly earnings statement. It is unclear how it came up with the funds to close on the land.

Webstar said in the release that it plans to finance the first phase of the mixed-use project through institutional loans and equity, a bond issuance and a $223.7M revenue bond inducement from Fulton County. 

The Development Authority of Fulton County in October approved a letter of inducement for the revenue bond, which would also allow the developers to save $9.7M in property taxes over 10 years for the first phase of the project, Bisnow previously reported. 

The inducement, which doesn't cover the condo portion of the project, isn't an automatic approval of the actual bond but instead demonstrates the incentive the county would be willing to grant for a project if it comes to fruition.

Webstar also plans to raise funds for the project via cryptocurrency tokens on the Torch RWA platform. A portion of the proceeds of those tokens would be collected into an investment fund that would lower homeowners association fees for future owners, according to the press release. 

“By integrating traditional real estate financing with compliant blockchain technology, we are opening the door for residents, investors, and communities to participate in Atlanta’s growth,” Haynes said in a statement.

Webstar tapped Turner & Townsend for development management, Skyline Engineering for in-house oversight, Kimley-Horn as the project’s lead engineering firm, and Nelson Worldwide as lead designer. It named Skanska as the potential general contractor in the press release, saying the Swedish construction giant “has participated in preliminary discussions and pre-construction planning.” 

Webstar said in the release that it planned to “move into an active launch and construction phase in 2026,” including launching presales of the 600 condo units and hosting a “ceremonial groundbreaking” in mid-2026. 

Webstar emerged on the scene this year when it announced its plans for an Atlanta megaproject before it even had the site under contract. It later issued a press release declaring it had placed the Forge Atlanta under contract.

But in August 2024, it announced that it was pursuing a $650M amusement park in Commerce, Georgia, called Bear Village, which was set to encompass a water park, hotels, timeshares, retail shops and a 15,000-gallon freshwater aquarium. 

Even as the publicly traded firm was trying to raise money for the project, its deal for the land collapsed, an investigation by Bisnow revealed in July, a fact it never disclosed to investors. Webstar later admitted that it had abandoned the Bear Village concept and was focusing its efforts on Forge Atlanta.

Bisnow also uncovered a corporate paper trail that securities law experts said was concerning, including SEC filings riddled with spelling errors and executives with unverifiable résumés and a lack of discernible experience with large-scale projects. The company has also been working with a developer who was fined by the SEC for alleged fraud relating to a failed amusement park development, Bisnow reported.