Morris Brown: No plans to sell dorm for Falcons stadium

ATLANTA, Ga. — Bankrupt Morris Brown College has no plans to sell a dormitory building in order to help build a new Falcons stadium south of the Georgia Dome.

Consumer investigator Jim Strickland found in bankruptcy records that the school has a better deal in mind.

A document filed by bankruptcy attorney Anne Aaronson late Friday states the school has had no offers from Friendship Baptist Church to relocate to the site of two dorm towers on campus.

The church must move to accommodate a new stadium south of the dome.

Aaronson told a federal judge "several more reasonable and substantial offers have come in," and that they're "not dependent upon the ultimate location of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium."

Friendship's attorney told Strickland in an exclusive interview Aug. 9 that if the church does not buy from the school directly, it may try to buy from the buyer.

"Friendship doesn't control what happens in the bankruptcy and the whole deal, but whatever group gets it (the dorm), Friendship is interested in talking to them," said Dr. Rod Edmond, the church's lead negotiator.

Aaronson argued the school needs another week to chart a sale and its financial future.

Judge Barbara Ellis Monro granted the time and permission to borrow another $300,000 to keep classes going.

More than two dozen college supporters and alumni packed the bankruptcy hearing.

"I have all my faith in the school that they'll make the right decision in anything that they do," said recent graduate Joshua Long.

Long is the latest of five generations of his family to attend Morris Brown.

"We have to do what we have to in order to survive. If we are doing what's best for the college in total, then we are willing to sell parts. Not all, not most parts, some parts," said Long's mom, 1985 graduate Norrisa Mellix.

WSBTV