$26 million for the Verizon campus. The vote is Monday.

The City of Milton wants to build a park district on 75 acres off Windward Parkway. Monday night it takes the first step: a $26.25 million agreement to buy 51 acres between Deerfield Parkway and Morris Road, the Verizon campus, and tear down the three empty office buildings on it.

Council votes Monday at 6 p.m. at City Hall. General public comment comes near the top of the agenda, well before this item, so that is the window if you want to be heard on it.

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The Verizon campus in gold, the 24 acres the city bought in 2024 in green. Parcel lines: Fulton County Board of Assessors.

Nobody has worked there since 2020. Verizon told us so on Friday. The people once based on the campus are hybrid workers assigned to its Alpharetta campus on North Point Parkway, or they work from home, and the company says no jobs are affected by the sale. It would not say how many people had worked there.

“We appreciate the City of Milton for being an outstanding partner in this matter,” a Verizon spokesperson said. “While we are consolidating our local office footprint, we remain deeply committed to north Fulton and the state of Georgia.”

What the city would own. With the 24 acres it bought across Deerfield Parkway in 2024 for $8.75 million, Milton would hold 75.74 acres, bought for about $35 million before demolition and construction. Fulton County’s assessors put the fair market value of the two parcels at $50 million: $22 million for the land, $28 million for the buildings. Measured against the land alone, Milton would pay about $4 million over the county’s number. Measured against land and buildings together, about $24 million under it. Which comparison is fair depends on the buildings, and the city’s position is that they are a liability it will pay to remove.

What goes there. Athletic fields first, then trails, open space and gathering areas, with land the city does not need for recreation sold to private developers to bring down the cost. “Owning the land lets the city and its residents decide where recreation, trails, and open space go before private development decides it for us,” Mayor Peyton Jamison wrote in answer to our questions. His goal is to start construction on the athletic complex in the first quarter of next year.

How it gets paid for. Cash, and no borrowing, City Manager Steve Krokoff told us. The city expects to use its pay-as-you-go capital program, with the $22.9 million already set aside for a new athletic complex as “likely an initial source,” then replenish it with money from selling parcels. The city is also applying for a federal outdoor recreation grant that would match up to $15 million, which Krokoff cautioned is “not funding that should be described as already secured or even depended upon.”

Monday’s vote is not the last one. Approval puts $100,000 in escrow and starts 60 days of due diligence, during which the city can walk away for any reason and get it back. There is no independent appraisal yet; that, an environmental review and demolition estimates are what the 60 days are for. Staff recommends a second public vote before the city commits. Closing would be on or before Dec. 1.

What it pays in taxes now. About $90,000 a year to Milton, $90,134.75 to the dollar, the figure the city gave us. That is the city’s share alone; Fulton County and the county school system levy their own and larger rates on the same parcels. Milton’s share stops at closing, because land a city owns pays no property tax, and the pieces it sells would go back on the rolls.

The full story is on our site, with the agreement’s terms and every answer the mayor and the city gave us, printed in full. Every parcel is on our interactive map, which you can zoom and tap.