Richard Ramey, co-owner of the Atlanta Eagle, said today a rezoning request for the property the gay bar sits on would not impact the bar and there are no plans for the bar to relocate.

The bar has a five-year lease on its location at 306 Ponce de Leon Ave., signed shortly after the Atlanta Police Department raid on the bar on Sept. 10, 2009, Ramey explained in a phone call from Argentina. The bar has been at this spot 25 years, he added.

When the lease was signed, Ramey said the property owners were interested in selling the land the bar is located on as well as the neighboring Kodak building.

“They asked me if I wanted it and I wasn’t interested. I think they were asking $1.6 million at that time,” he said.

A buyout clause is part of the Atlanta Eagle lease, Ramey added.

“They would have to pay us to move. The rezoning is just because the property owners want to sell the property. But we plan to be there,” he said.

The rezoning meeting, slated for July 1, has been rescheduled for August, according to Project Q Atlanta.

The rezoning request made by local architect Robert Cain on behalf of the property owners, The Bootery Inc., is part of a quality of life initiative along the Ponce de Leon corridor. Cain is a local architect.

The request is being made to rezone from C-2 (commercial service) district to MRC-2 (mixed residential commercial).

Cain said there were no plans to close the Atlanta Eagle and there were no plans to redevelop the property at this time.

“This is not adversarial. There is no ulterior motive here,” Cain said June 30.

Ramey said the property owners were seeking to rezone the property in order to sell it.

“If they rezone it, it’s just to help sell [the property],” Ramey said. "But they have no buyers right now."