ATLANTA --- After two years of planning and fundraising, officials announced on Monday the city's proposed $125 million civil and human rights museum will be built in downtown Atlanta's prime tourist zone.

The Center for Civil and Human Rights will be located between The New World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. The announcement was made by Doug Shipman, the center's executive director, with Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin at the site.

Coke donated the $10 million, 2.5-acre parcel near Centennial Olympic Park to the museum in October 2006.

The site was chosen over a location closer to The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change -- located a few miles away in the same neighborhood as the Rev. King's birthplace, the church where he preached and the tomb where he and his wife, Coretta, are buried. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King previously argued that the project should be located in the historic neighborhood.

On Monday, The King Center's chief executive officer, Isaac Newton Farris Jr., called the decision a good one.

"The King Center looks forward to doing everything we can to help ensure that it will be successfully completed," Mr. Farris said.

The new museum is scheduled to break ground next year and will showcase the city and state's contributions to human rights efforts around the world. Morehouse College's Martin Luther King Jr. Collection is expected to be the centerpiece of the project.

Organizers say it is expected to generate $1.3 billion in economic impact for the city, create about 2,700 jobs and attract 800,000 visitors in its first year.