College football is king in Atlanta and the Southeast. Georgia State University, seeking to capitalize on the region’s passion for football, is starting its first football team. The Panthers’ first game is scheduled for 2010 at the Georgia Dome.
The team will start practicing next year, at a new site just a short walk from Georgia State’s downtown campus. Seyfarth Shaw partner Robert Trusty and Ferguson McManamy partner Kati Heller were the primary outside counsel on the property sale.
Blood N Fire Ministries-Atlanta Inc., a non-profit group, sold the 3.8-acre parcel to the Georgia State University Foundation for $6.6 million, according to Fulton County Superior Court records. Trusty advised Georgia State and Heller was counsel to Blood N Fire. Georgia State University in-house counsel Neal Bateman III worked on contract issues and due diligence.
The property is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just east of where the street crosses the Downtown Connector. MARTA’s east-west rail line runs along the northern edge of the property. The headquarters of Atlanta businessman Billy Corey’s business sits to the west of the site. Blood N Fire operated a ministerial-outreach program on the property, which includes two older brick-clad industrial warehouses.
Georgia State plans to have two practice fields on the site, along with a training facility and coaches' offices.
The property sale was brokered by Jamie Hargather of Wilson, Hull & Neal, representing Georgia State; and by Larry Culbertson of The C Group LLC, representing Blood N Fire.
The Georgia State Panthers will be coached by former Georgia Tech and Alabama head coach Bill Curry [photo, above].