*Tyler Perry wants to buy the Forces Command building at Fort Mac after learning its FDA laboratory would emit toxic fumes into the atmosphere in a predominantly Black Atlanta neighborhood.
Per TMZ, “The building was reportedly approved to be sold to Easterly Government Properties in 2019 for $17M — and the current plan is to lease to the FDA, which would have it up and running by 2025,” the outlet writes.
Tyler offered to buy it for $17 million, but the feds sold it to Easterly. The movie mogul is now “willing to pay a premium for the property now,” per TMZ.
Perry told Saporta, “To allow someone to put a laboratory in the heart of this development with smokestacks is not okay with me. They would not do it in Buckhead, so why would they do it here? It feels like environmental racism.”
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The building is adjacent to Tyler’s expanding movie studio. Perry said he would “gladly buy the buildings at a premium to not have smokestacks on the property.”
He added, “The best outcome, if they do not sell the building to me, would be to not have the smokestacks with the environmental impact in an all-Black neighborhood.”
An FDA official says the facility is designed to clean all emissions.
“A smokestack is not a fair or accurate description of it at all,” said Mark Bauer, executive vice president of Easterly Government Properties.
“They are Strobic fans. It’s typical for all labs, hospitals and medical facilities. It’s a type of exhaust system that takes unwanted vapors and fumes created in the lab application and cleans it before putting it out in the atmosphere, so it’s clean. The mechanics are on the roof. The vapors that come out are not visible. It’s not like toxic fumes,” Bauer added.
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