By Maria Saporta

Mayoral candidate Lisa Borders, president of Atlanta’s City Council, received the top rating from the Committee for a Better Atlanta — a score of 95 out of a possible 100.

Former State Sen. Kasim Reed came in second with a score of 93. Mary Norwood, a city councilwoman who is thought to be the frontrunner in the race, received a score of 86; and attorney Jesse Spikes had a score of 81.

The fifth candidate, Peter Brownlowe, only received a score of 30. The sixth candidate, Kyle Keyser, did not participate.

The qualifications of the candidates were graded on vision, experience, ability to implement initiatives, managing government, public safety, economic development, mobility and infrastructure.

The results were announced at a press conference Tuesday morning at the Omni hotel by CBA Chairman Jeff Wansley, vice president of government affairs for Equifax. Wansley made sure to let people know that the committee was not making endorsements in the various races.

Wansley said the city has had a “great eight years” under the leadership of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and that the committee wants to let voters know which candidates it believes are best qualified to fill her shoes.

“There are a lot of great candidates running for mayor,” Wansley said, adding that 43 of the 51 candidates running for city offices participated in the committees review. That included filling out a lengthy questionnaire and being interviewed in person by committee members.

For City Council President, the two city council representatives vying for that seat — Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller — received the identical score of 92.

For the complete analysis, click here for the survey results.

Here are the top scorers in several of the contested city council races:

District 4: Cleta Winslow, incumbent: 87;

District 6: Alex Wan: 90;

District 11: Keisha Bottoms: 86;

District 12: Joyce Sheperd, incumbent: 89;

Post 1 At Large: Michael Julian Bond: 88;

Post 2 At Large: Amir Farokhi and Aaron Watson both received a score of 91; and

Post 3 At Large: H. Lamar Willis, incumbent, received a score of 92.

The Committee for a Better Atlanta, in existence since 1997, is a coalition of more than 30 business and civic advocates. The committee provides voters with the tools to help them make informed choices on the candidates running for office, based on qualifications and their understanding of issues facing the city of Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta

The Buckhead Coalition, a group of key business leaders based in Buckhead, is taking a stance in the city’s upcoming elections.

The Better Community Political Action Committee, the PAC of the Buckhead Coalition, interviewed the top candidates for mayor. It decided to divide its $2,400 contribution on a proportional based of a straw vote of the members present.

City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who lives in Buckhead, was the top vote getter, receiving 56 percent. That meant the BC PAC wrote her a check for $1,344. The other two top candidates — City Council President Lisa Borders and former State Sen. Kasim Reed — each received 22 percent of the vote and checks for $528.

Interestingly enough, the Buckhead Coalition endorsed City Councilman Ceaser Mitchell in the race for City Council President instead of his opponent, City Councilwoman Clair Muller, who is a Buckhead resident and been a longtime representative for that part of the city.

In all city council races where incumbents are facing opposition, the BC PAC decided to support the incumbents with $2,400 checks. Those included Ivory Young for District 3; Cleta Winslow for District 4; Joyce Sheperd for District 12; and Lamar Willis for Post 3.

In contested races with no incumbent, the BC PAC decided to support Yolanda Adrean for District 8 and Michael Julian Bond for Post 1. Both will receive a $2,400 contribution.

The PAC, however, has not yet decided who it will support in the other three contested races without an incumbent — District 6, District 11 and Post 2.

For those city council representatives who are running unopposed, the BC PAC is donating $500 “to help defray” candidacy costs, according to Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition.

On Tuesday, the Committee for a Better Atlanta will announce its ratings of the various candidates running for office in the City of Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 25, 2009

A national movement was birthed over dinner at the former Camille’s Italian restaurant in Virginia-Highland.

It was late in 1988. Elise Eplan had just returned from graduate school in the Northeast where a friend of hers had started a volunteer organization called New York Cares. She contacted a longtime family friend, Kent Alexander, who she thought might be interested in helping launch such an organization in Atlanta.

“Our parents were hoping we were on a date,” said Alexander, who is now general counsel for Emory University.

That “date” led to the creation of Hands On Atlanta 20 years ago when Eplan and Alexander gathered a dozen friends and colleagues to launch the organization.

Today Hands On Atlanta is a national leader in the volunteer movement. In fact, the national organization — Points of Light and Hands On Network — is now based in Atlanta. And the CEO of the national association is Michelle Nunn, who was the founding executive of Hands On Atlanta.

On Oct. 3, the organization will put on its 19th Hands On Atlanta Day — a day when as many as 10,000 Atlantans will volunteer on projects all over the city.

As it celebrates its 20th year, Hands On Atlanta is kicking off a new campaign — to raise $500,000 and have its volunteers contribute 500,000 hours of service during the next year.

It is a time of transition for Hands On Atlanta. Last November, it named Gina Simpson, formerly deputy commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, as its president.

“We are still the connector between the people in need and the people who want to give back,” said Simpson, who added that Hands On Atlanta is re-emphasizing its core mission of service in three key areas: the economy, education and the environment.

In its two decades, the volunteerism movement has taken hold. The recent passage of the Kennedy Serve America Act will invest $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2010 to expand service programs.

“Being the place where the national organization was birthed, we have such a legacy around volunteerism,” Simpson said. “The other affiliates still see us as the godfather and leader of the volunteer movement.”

Eplan, now a consultant to foundations, marvels at how the organization and the movement has grown since the original dozen founders met in her living room.

“It was an idea that worked,” Eplan said.

Hands On Atlanta was able to tap into a population that didn’t want to be remembered as the “me generation.”

“The whole decade was branded the narcissistic ’80s,” Alexander said. “We bristled at that. We wanted to get people hooked on volunteerism. Part of the vision was to do things hands-on and not just mailing a check or calling it in.”

Corporations also have signed on. General Electric Co. is the presenting sponsor for Hands On Atlanta Day. One of the largest projects will take place at the Butler Street YMCA in northwest Atlanta’s Washington Park neighborhood, where more than 300 volunteers from GE will do a host of improvements, including building walking trails, installing flooring and electrical fixtures, and assembling planter benches.

Other corporate sponsors include AirTran Airways Inc., Accenture Ltd., The Coca-Cola Co., Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., The Home Depot Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Newell Rubbermaid Inc. and Radiant Systems Inc..

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, is the honorary chair of the 2009 Hands On Atlanta Day. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and the four leading candidates running to succeed her also will be part of the event.

“We really want to knock this one out of the park,” Simpson said.

For Eplan, the 20-year anniversary is a time to reflect and look forward.

“There’s still so much need in Atlanta, and there are so many more opportunities for people to be engaged in community service,” she said. “I wouldn’t dare say we changed the world, but I do think that we helped change Atlanta.”

Founded in 1989 by a group of concerned citizens, Hands On Atlanta in its 20-year history has mobilized more than 250,000 volunteers who have provided more than 1 million hours of service to more than 4,000 nonprofits and schools throughout the greater Atlanta area.

It also has operated the largest AmeriCorps program in the Southeast for the past 16 years, with more than 1,750 members providing tutoring, mentoring, after-school enrichment and volunteer management services for Atlanta Public Schools.

Hands On Atlanta is an affiliate of the Hands On Network, an umbrella association of “Cares” and “Hands On” organizations across the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries.

Hands On Network and the Points of Light Foundation formally combined forces in 2007 to become to become the Points of Light Institute.

By Maria Saporta

More and more students are being drawn to Georgia State University, according to its relatively new president Mark Becker.

Becker recently spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta saying “the future is nothing but bright” for Georgia State University.

Despite the recession, the number of applications to the university was up about 20 percent; and GSU accepted its largest freshman class ever — 3,000 students.

“In 1995, only 2,225 applied to go to GSU. We had 12,000 applications this year,” Becker said.

As he sees it, students are drawn to GSU because its student population is representative of the state and the nation. About 28 percent of the student body is African-American; 12 percent is Asian; about 8 percent hispanic and about 4 percent of multi-ethnicity.

Currently, about 3,000 students live on campus, and there’s a waiting list of 700 more students who want to live on the urban campus.

“You can expect to see us adding to our inventory (of student housing) as resources and time permit,” Becker said. “You will see more students living on campus.”

Looking to the future, Becker said he would like to advance Georgia State in three areas. First, he wants a “continued commitment to be recognized for excellence in education and as research institution.”

Next, he wants GSU to be “an integral part of downtown Atlanta” and embark in constructive community partnerships. “We have to be connected, and we have to be engaged,” Becker said.

Lastly, Becker is committed to making Georgia State more globally-oriented and help students become better prepared to have an international perspective.

Becker has been at Georgia State since January. Asked about his biggest surprise and disappointment, Becker said: “The place is better than I ever could have imagined. The biggest disappointment? The global recession.” But then he added: “You deal with the reality you’re given.”

What a week.

It started off with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood telling Georgia that it needs to get its act together when it comes to high-speed rail and transit.

Although LaHood didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, it’s always reaffirming to have the most powerful transportation official in the country tell state leaders that they’ve been asleep at the switch.

“There has to be a commitment by state government that transit is important,” LaHood, one of the key Republicans in President Barack Obama’s administration, said in an interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jay Bookman.

As we all know, the state of Georgia does not invest in MARTA, the largest transit agency in the country that receives no operating support from its home state.

We all know that the state has refused to move forward on commuter rail service between Atlanta and Lovejoy and later Macon despite the federal government having allocated $87 million to the project for more than a decade.

And we also know the state has not been planning for the high-speed rail, a priority of the Obama administration. For leadership on high-speed rail, just look to our neighbors — North Carolina on one border and Florida on the other.

It’s easy for us to blame our state leadership for inaction.

But that’s not the complete picture of where we are.

As a contrast to the state’s incompetence, the Atlanta region is getting its act together on transit.

Just this week, our regional leaders moved one step closer to creating a metro-wide transit system that would implement Concept 3, a transit plan that has received the overwhelming endorsement from our top regional leaders.

Usually governance discussions can put folks to sleep. But bear with me. The Transit Implementation Board on Wednesday approved a governance structure that can guide the development of transit in our region for decades to come.

As a way to avoid having to go to the state legislature, the new entity will be a separate-standing committee of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The Regional Transit Committee, if approved by all the partnering agencies, will be the most regional and comprehensive body to oversee transit that metro Atlanta has ever seen.

The structure would be more extensive than MARTA, which only serves three jurisdictions (the city of Atlanta, DeKalb and Fulton counties).

The Regional Transit Committee (RTC) would incorporate 12 metro counties (those that now have some level of transit, either through MARTA, their own transit system or GRTA Xpress buses) and would be flexible to add another eight counties.

So this is the proposed make-up of the RTC:

The voting members would include the top elected officials from each of the 12 counties and the mayor of Atlanta. It would include the board chair of MARTA; the chair of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority; the chair of the Georgia Department of Transportation (or their designee from the board); three gubernatorial appointees; the state’s transportation planning director and the chair of the Metro Atlanta Mayor’s Association.

(There also would be several non-voting members: the director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, GRTA’s executive director, MARTA’s general manager and GDOT’s commissioner).

All votes would need to receive approval from a simple majority of that board.

But if there were to be a significant proposed change to Concept 3 or the Transportation Improvement Plan or the Regional Transportation Plan, there would be a “dual-track” vote. A majority of the 13 top elected officials (from the 12 counties and the city of Atlanta) also would be needed. That is one more safety net to make sure regional leaders remain in control.

“This is a huge step for this region to develop a governance structure for transit that represents the region,” said Doug Tollett, a governor appointee who serves as vice chairman of the Transit Implementation board, after during Wednesday’s meeting.

During Wednesday’s meeting, GDOT board member Emory McClinton, who represents the 5th Congressional District – Atlanta, questioned whether there were too many state officials with voting privileges.

“Is this a regional or statewide board?” McClinton asked. “Is this a board that’s being set up for the governor to control the governance structure, a governor who is not paying (for transit)?”
McClinton was assured that region would have the most votes. The way I count it, the RTC would have 21 board members, including six from the state — five of which will be named by the governor.

Personally, I think that gives the governor way too much of a voice for transit in our region — especially when the state hasn’t paid to play. But my MARTA friends said it was better to have a big tent with the hope that the state eventually would understand the need to invest in transit.

(As a reminder, MARTA has a half-dozen state officials on its board, and they have not been paying players in more than three decades).

All that said, when it comes to transit, we are at an amazing moment in metro Atlanta’s history. There is tremendous consensus and good will in our region — be it urban, suburban or exurban — and there’s growing respect and confidence in MARTA and its general manager, Beverly Scott.

If Secretary LaHood really wants to see Georgia get its act together on transit, he needs to look no farther than the Atlanta region. It’s the best argument that exists for federal transportation funds to flow directly to our region rather than through our state government bureaucracy.

And for those state leaders — past, present or future — who still believe the state needs to take over MARTA, you are out of step with the progress we have made as region.

Now we need the ability to invest in our regional transit plan by seizing on the trust and cooperation that currently exists in metro Atlanta.

Footnote: The Association County Commissioners of Georgia recently released a report examining how other states have increased transportation funding since 2000. The report: “Coping with Transportation Funding Deficits: A Survey of the States,” looks at how other states have gotten their act together when it comes to transit and transportation. The complete report is available at www.accg.org.

By Maria Saporta and J. Scott Trubey
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 10:28pm EDT
Modified: Friday, September 25, 2009, 1:00am

Many outstanding issues remain for Atlanta to land the College Football Hall of Fame, though officials said Thursday they are confident they can pull it off.

Executives with the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the National Football Foundation (NFF) acknowledge funding and a site for the $50 million facility have not been finalized. There is also a sunset provision in July 2010 after which both sides could conceivably walk away if the deal is not done.

And some members of the business community question whether there is sufficient financial support available from Atlanta companies as well as city and state governments suffering through a bitter economy.

The board of the NFF, which owns the college hall, voted Wednesday to approve a letter of intent to move the shrine from South Bend, Ind., to Atlanta. In the letter of intent, the representatives of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, which will operate the college hall, committed to raise $50 million and to build a 50,000-square-foot facility.

Steve Hatchell, the president and CEO of the CFF, said Thursday he has been told by the Atlanta team “they are 85 percent there” toward the $50 million fundraising goal. But that does not seem to jive with comments made during and after a press conference by Chick-fil-A Bowl President Gary Stokan.

Chick-fil-A Inc. and the Chick-fil-A Bowl each have committed $5 million for a total of $10 million, and are the only entities to firmly commit financing, Stokan said.

“We don’t have any other commitments,” he said in an interview following the official announcement.

The City of Atlanta and the state government, both suffering steep tax revenue shortfalls, have offered financial support, but the details of which can, at best, be considered vague.

Stokan and Hatchell said they expect a deal to be finalized before the Chick-fil-A Bowl is played New Year’s Eve. But if funds cannot be raised, both sides can walk away from the deal after July 31.

“The deal is done,” Stokan said. “We’re committed to making this happen and confident it will, otherwise we wouldn’t have signed the [letter of intent].”

Stokan brushed aside questions involving the sunset provision, initially refusing to acknowledge the date itself. He also declined to answer specific questions about potential government funding, deferring to city and state officials.

“We will raise $50 million in some form or fashion,” Stokan said. “We hope our fundraising goes so well that there’s an upside to this. We have to raise [an additional] $40 million. We have committed to a building that will be open by September 2012. That’s what we are going to do.”

The State

Charlie Gatlin, deputy commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, could not offer specifics of the state’s level of financial commitment to the Hall of Fame.

“We will be a partner in the financial part of it with the city and the private sector,” he said.

When pressed about how much the state would commit, Gatlin said: “I’m not sure where they will end up. They’re putting the budgets together now.

“We are committed to the package. It’s a matter of how we divide it up. We are on the team.”

It is possible the state’s contributions could be in low interest bond financing that would have to be repaid, sources said.

Gatlin did not elaborate on how the state would be involved, but Stokan said firm financial commitments from the state might not come until the 2010 legislative session.

The City

Peggy McCormick, president of the Atlanta Development Authority, said the city would put “up to $1 million” into the project from its Economic Opportunity Fund.

“There are a variety of things that we could do,” McCormick said, adding the city needed to “put skin in the game” so that the state would also be part of the package.

“We are very excited about the economic impact,” she said.

Gregg Simon, the development authority’s manager of business engagement, said there also could be new market tax credits and some bond programs that could go into the project.

Hatchell, the NFF chief executive, said he was certain of the abilities of the Atlanta team to meet their financing commitments. Opt out clauses are part of any big deal, he said, adding he has been assured the team is most of the way to its goal.

“That’s what they have represented to us,” Hatchell said. “We are beyond confident. They want the Hall of Fame, and we have said we’re coming.”
Competition for corporate support

Major corporate support from Atlanta business beyond Chick-fil-A might also be a challenging prospect.

The announcement of the college hall, a coup for the city to be certain and a lift in a down economy, comes at a time when three other major philanthropic groups are beating the bushes for corporate support.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Center for Civil & Human Rights and the National Health Museum are each deep in capital campaigns that have struggled to meet funding goals amid a deep global recession.

Representatives of the civil rights center and the health museum were present at Thursday’s press conference.

“They are all very important projects, and we need to make sure that we have enough community resources to make them happen,” said A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, the downtown business group, which has been closely involved in the redevelopment around Centennial Olympic Park.

The NFF’s head did not seem to be phased by potential fundraising competition.

“This is a big city that can go off and do a whole lot of things at one time,” Hatchell said.

Sponsorships from outside Atlanta are plausible given the national appeal of the sport. Hatchell said the board of the foundation, however, is not a part of the fundraising effort.
‘A Better Platform’

Relocating to Atlanta gives the college football shrine higher stature. Indeed, it would be the only major sports hall of fame in a major American city.

“This is a better platform,” Hatchell said, comparing the scope of Atlanta with South Bend. He denied that attendance, which has failed to meet expectations in South Bend, was the reason the hall is moving south.

“We can create something here that hasn’t been created before,” he said.

The foundation plans to enlarge its role in promoting the student athlete and positive role models in amateur athletics, spotlighting former college football players that have gone on to great success off the field. The NFF is also planning to expand its scholarship programs for high school athletes.

The college hall is taking a gamble by signing on with Atlanta. With the deal, the current college hall in South Bend will close in December 2010, and the Atlanta hall is not scheduled to open until September 2012.

Enshrinement for the Hall of Fame class of 2011 is slated to take place in Atlanta, Stokan said.
The Site

There are also some outstanding questions related to a location for the college football shrine.

Some sources have said the Chick-fil-A Bowl has an option to buy a site, currently a parking lot, on Centennial Olympic Park Drive.

Stokan said that is not the case and that officials are currently vetting four sites. He declined to identify the parcels, saying only that each meets criteria of being adjacent to the park, which has become a hub of tourist activity with the CNN Center, Georgia Aquarium, World of Coke and will be the future home of the Center for Civil & Human Rights.

The bowl has issued requests for proposals for architects, developers, designers and consultants. Stokan said bowl officials hope to have corporate sponsors identified and contracts for design and development awarded in time to draft a definitive agreement with the CFF in December.
Confidence

Stokan said officials would have a clearer picture about financial commitments after meetings with corporations and Georgia lawmakers.

“It is going to take work. This is the celebration,” Stokan said after the press conference. “Now we are going to make this happen.”

Former University of Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley said he has no doubts about Atlanta’s ability to land the college hall.

“I really have confidence that it can be done,” said Dooley, an inductee to the Hall of Fame who attended the announcement.

By Maria Saporta and Doug Sams
Friday, September 25, 2009

Cousins Properties Inc., one of the largest real estate companies in the Southeast, is entering a new era — armed with a new CEO and a third of a billion dollars in new capital.

Larry Gellerstedt III, who became the CEO of Cousins (NYSE: CUZ) on July 1 after the accelerated departure of CEO Tom Bell, is demonstrating his understated style of leadership.

The change at the top is a major transition for one of Atlanta’s most-vested companies, which is now repositioning itself for when the economy begins to rebound.

In the past month, Gellerstedt has had to oversee a significant layoff of employees and a decrease in the firm’s expenses. He’s worked with the board to create a new strategic plan, implemented the issuance of 46 million shares (in addition to the existing 52 million shares) — a $333 million stock offering — nearly doubling the company’s financial firepower.

Cousins could use most of the proceeds to pay down debt.

The company had $944 million in consolidated debt at the end of the second quarter, including what it had drawn on a line of credit.

Its share of unconsolidated debt is $143 million.

Cousins also has a $500 million revolving line of credit that matures in 2011. The company can elect to extend the maturity for one year.

The new issuance also nearly halves the ownership share of founder Tom Cousins and his family. At one time, the family owned about half of the company’s shares.

Before this latest stock offering, the Cousins family and its various foundations owned about 25 percent of the company (about 14 million shares). Now, the Cousins family interests own about 15 percent of the real estate firm.

These are all major changes for Atlanta’s largest real estate company, which has developed several of the city’s signature office towers, including the One Ninety One Peachtree building, Bank of America Plaza and the Terminus complex in Buckhead.

It is a company that has experienced several down real estate cycles, the most difficult one being in the mid-1970s when Cousins was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Since then, Cousins — both the founder and the company — has been relatively conservative by not taking on too much debt.

And when there have been down real estate cycles, Cousins traditionally has cut its workforce and hunkered down waiting for the bad economy to pass.

Now it’s happening again.

“These are historically tough times in real estate,” Gellerstedt said in a recent interview. “A lot of the pain in commercial real estate is still ahead of us.”

Cousins’ stock was trading Sept. 23 at about $8.45 a share, near the low end of its 52-week trading range ($5.85 to $26.14).

Four years ago, Gellerstedt sold his condo development company to Cousins to head mixed-use projects for the firm.

“Tom Bell and I had talked about a potential of succession here,” Gellerstedt said, adding that there were other candidates in the mix. “My motivation to come here was not driven by that.”

As CEO of Cousins, Bell was a strong, decisive executive who enjoyed being an active developer, a key civic leader and a power player. Bell successfully helped Tom Cousins withdraw from the company’s day-to-day operations, and he emerged as the face of Cousins Properties.

In the last year or so, discussions about Bell’s successor became more serious, and it soon became clear that Gellerstedt had been tapped to eventually become the CEO of Cousins. The plan had been for Gellerstedt to serve as president for a year or so; then he would become CEO with Bell remaining as chairman to ensure a smooth transition.

But that timetable all changed in June. A specially called board meeting on June 6 led to the announcement that Bell was stepping down as both CEO and chairman by the end of the month.

“Transitions just never play out the way you planned them,” Gellerstedt said. “I certainly felt ready to do it, but the timing was a shock and abrupt.”

Bell said he decided to leave because he thought it would be a while before the company would begin developing again. Since he was approaching 60, he didn’t expect to be around for that next up cycle.

“I had done my thing,” Bell said. “I knew it was going to take another four to five years before we started developing. I knew I wasn’t going to be around for all that. I thought we ought to have the team that’s going to live with the investment make the investment.”

Gellerstedt said that he and Bell had traveled to New York a couple of times in the spring, and Bell began sharing those thoughts with him.

“I learned a lot from Tom Bell,” Gellerstedt said. “We are different, but I think the combination of him being burned out, not having fun and that the world was not going to come to an end, led him to say: ‘Let’s just go ahead and do it.’ ”

Given the abruptness of the transition, there may have been other factors at play. Bell is a deal-maker who likes making things happen and building projects. It is not his style to enjoy managing distressed real estate, cutting back expenses and downsizing a company.

Although Gellerstedt doesn’t necessarily enjoy doing those tasks, he is a consensus leader who is known to work behind the scenes to resolve issues. He prefers a more low-key lifestyle than Bell.

Given the economic situation, the Cousins board might have felt that Gellerstedt’s leadership and management style were a better fit to run the company at this time.

“Yes, we have got different styles,” Gellerstedt said. “A key part of the plan was cutting back the cost structure and deleveraging the company. It’s a lot harder to do it when you have created it.”

Asked whether there were disagreements on the board on selling equity in the company or cutting expenses, Bell said that “anytime you have got markets like today’s market, you are going to have lively discussions.” But he said there was no disagreement on the need to issue equity.

For Bell, leaving Cousins Properties when he did was right for him and right for the company.

“I couldn’t really leave Cousins until it was okey-dokey,” Bell said about the timing of his departure. “I didn’t see the market improving. And I didn’t see it getting any worse. I knew the company was going to be fine.”

Although the transition happened sooner than planned, Gellerstedt has immersed himself in being Cousins’ CEO.

“The last 90 days have been pretty busy,” Gellerstedt said, adding that his summer turned out differently than he had planned.

He quickly got to work in figuring out how to reduce expenses. The company’s airplane is now for sale because Gellerstedt couldn’t see having a plane while having to lay off employees. He also had to work with the board and the top management team on how to position the company for its next chapter.

Gellerstedt hopes the company won’t have to do any more layoffs. The company has cut about 80 jobs since the peak of the market in 2007.

“It was very painful to do the downsizing that we did a few weeks ago. My hope is that this will work for the next two years,” he said adding that the development group “took a higher percentage hit” than the rest of the company. He also intends to use the development team to scout distressed assets and redevelop those properties.

During the transition, Bell was the “consummate gentleman.” Bell gave him his support and expressed his confidence in Gellerstedt to investors, analysts and employees. Gellerstedt said that if he were a new CEO landing from Mars, he would find Cousins an exciting place to be.

“This company still has great assets, great people, it’s been able to recapitalize itself. We have taken this leverage way down,” Gellerstedt said. “The long-term dynamics are very positive.”

SIDEBAR: ACCESS TO MONEY WILL BOOST REITS

By Doug Sams

The ability to raise money stands to give publicly traded real estate investment trusts an upper hand over private developers.

That advantage could put REITs in position to become some of the most active buyers of Atlanta commercial real estate in the coming months as prices continue to fall.

Cousins Properties Inc. closed on a nearly $333 million stock offering Sept. 21 — the largest offering in the Atlanta developer’s 51-year history (as a percentage of its market cap).

It will use the proceeds to pay off debt and the rest to target distressed properties.

Cousins joined a growing number of publicly traded REITs that successfully tapped the marketplace in 2009, raising about $19 billion in equity, according to a benchmark Equity REIT Index.

Most REITs are using stock sales to reduce debt.

But, they are also putting themselves in position to buy distressed assets.

Private developers, meanwhile, have been unable to tap the pool of private equity with the same level of success. They are also hampered by the ongoing lockdown in the lending market.

“It’s a huge advantage right now to be a public company,” Cousins CEO Larry Gellerstedt said. “The private developers basically don’t have a market they can go to.”

Cousins will remain a sharpshooter, not a company eyeing 14-building portfolios, he said.

It isn’t the only REIT with a major presence in Atlanta that tapped the stock market this year.

Simon Property Group Inc., which owns several malls in Atlanta, raised almost $1.7 billion.

Duke Realty Corp., another big Atlanta landlord, raised $575 million.

Highwoods Properties Inc., which owns 6.5 million square feet of Atlanta real estate, raised $150 million.

For the first time in at least six years, Highwoods has zero drawn on its $450 million credit line.

“We now have the capacity to make sizable acquisitions,” said Chief Financial Officer Terry Stevens.

REITs suffered huge devaluations of their portfolios earlier in the commercial real estate downturn. But, since March 6, the returns are up nearly 111 percent, said Ron Kuykendall, a spokesman with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

While REITs have felt the pain of a major revaluation, private owners have felt comparatively little, said Dorsey Farr, principal with the investment advisory firm French Wolf & Farr.

In fact, private real estate valuations through the first quarter had suffered only a fraction of the decline that REITs experienced, he said. Investors think private market values have further room to fall.

By Maria Saporta

We now know at least three gubernatorial candidates who will be seeking support from the environmental community.

At Wednesday night’s Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Annual Patron Appreciation Dinner, two Democratic candidates for governor and one Republican candidate came — each making sure to work the room among some of the region’s top environmental leaders.

The first candidate I saw upon entering the upstairs of the Pak Tavern for the reception was DuBose Porter, a Democratic representative from Dublin who serves as the House Minority Leader.

Standing close by was Jeff Chapman, the newest entrant in the crowded Republican field of those who have announced they’re running for governor. But it was telling that Chapman, a state senator from Brunswick, was the only Republican to attend the fundraiser. Chapman has developed credibility among environmentalists for questioning the ambitious redevelopment plans of state-owned Jekyll Island.

The other gubernatorial candidate in attendance was former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat from Cobb County.

While he was governor, Barnes did work with environmental leaders on the acquisition of vulnerable properties in metro Atlanta for green space. Barnes also was a strong advocate for smart growth practices during his first term.

But Barnes also alienated some environmentalists for supporting the “Northern Arc,” a major highway project that would have connected I-85 to I-75 about 10 miles north of I-285.

In recent weeks, Barnes has made some controversial statements that could diminish his support among environmentalists.

He has advocated for an elevated light rail system that would be built over Atlanta’s interstates so that people could reach outlying suburbs. Such a system would encourage sprawl rather than mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented developments that are served by transit along city streets.

Barnes also has said he would like to spread out the state’s operations from the government center area near Five Points to locations across the metro area and the rest of the state. That would be an unsustainable and transit-unfriendly policy for a governor to adopt.

Still, Barnes appeared to be among friends at Wednesday night’s reception.

(Interestingly, none of the candidates running to be Atlanta’s mayor appeared at the reception).

The patron dinner honored Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin with the River Guardian Award. Other award winners were Elachee Nature Science Center with the River Education Award; former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Stacy Shelton with the River Awareness Award; and the Coca-Cola Co. with another River Guardian Award.

The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper also received a $75,000 Leadership Grant from RBC Bank and the RBC Blue Water Project. The grant will be support an outreach program to help educate citizens, elected officials and business leaders about the causes of North Georgia’s water crisis as wells as promote sustainable land use, water and energy efficiency.

The $75,000 check was presented at the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s annual dinner.

By Maria Saporta

At today’s Atlanta Regional Commission board meeting, three men declared their intention to seek the chairmanship of the 10-county planning organization.

The three, in alphabetical order, are: Charles Bannister, chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission; Tad Leithead, a former executive with Cousins Properties who is now building his own public policy and lobbying firm; and Jack Smith, the chairman of the Fayette County Commission.

One of those three, or possibly someone else who could enter the race between now and December, will succeed Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Commission who has been chairing the organization since 2004.

The ARC chairman actually wields quite a bit of power and influence in the region in the areas that fit under the commission’s umbrella — transportation, water, aging services and the Livable Communities Initiative.

ARC also provides the population and demographic forecasts for the region, and it organizes the annual Regional Leadership Institute and the annual LINK trip where leaders visit another metro area to gain insights on how other communities are addressing their problems.

The personality of the organization often takes on the personality of the chairman. Olens has worked hard to build regional relationships with other government leaders, especially Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. But he also has always been a strong advocate for Cobb.

In the past decade, the commission has been led by then-Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill (1998-2002); then Clayton County Commission Chairman Crandle Bray served one two-year term (2002-2004), the first ARC chairman from the southern part of the region.

The candidates each will make five minute talks at the October ARC board meeting; and elections will be held at the commission’s December meeting.

By Maria Saporta

Metro Atlanta is facing a tremendous transition in leadership, beginning with the chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Sam Olens, who has been chairman of the 10-county body since December 2004, is planning to step down so he can launch his campaign to run for state Attorney General.

Olens, who is also chairman of the Cobb Commission, has served two, two-year terms as ARC’s chairman.

At ARC’s board meeting this coming Wednesday, we will find out who is interested in succeeding Olens as chairman. Interested candidates are supposed to declare their intention at that meeting.

Speculation has been centered around three names: Jack Smith, chairman of the Fayette County Commission; Charles Bannister, chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission; and Tad Leithead, who until recently was an executive at Cousins Properties and is now running his own firm.

Smith, who was participating on a panel this week at the Regional Leadership Institute in St. Simons, coyly remarked that he had heard rumors to the effect that he would be seeking the ARC chairmanship.

Responding to an email sent last week, Bannister made a similar statement. “That is a good possibility,” Bannister wrote.

And Leithead, who also was at the RLI conference in St. Simons, said he had not yet made up his mind about whether he would seek the chairmanship. If successful in his quest, Leithead would be the first citizen member to chair the ARC. As long as I can remember, the ARC has been led by county commission chairs.

The chairmanship of the Atlanta Regional Commission is a delicate balancing act. An elected official, by design, must be sure to represent his or her constituency. But as ARC chairman, he or she must also carry a regional flag and promote a regional approach to tackling our problems.

It will be interesting to see who will seek this position, and more importantly, how regionally-minded he or she will be as chair.

The candidates will be given five minutes in October to tell their fellow ARC board members why they should be the new chair. Then there will be an election at the ARC board meeting in early December. Even at that meeting, other people can still enter their names in the ARC chairman’s race.
By Maria Saporta

Metro Atlanta is facing a tremendous transition in leadership, beginning with the chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Sam Olens, who has been chairman of the 10-county body since December 2004, is planning to step down so he can launch his campaign to run for state Attorney General.

Olens, who is also chairman of the Cobb Commission, has served two, two-year terms as ARC’s chairman.

At ARC’s board meeting on Wednesday, we will find out who is interested in succeeding Olens as chairman. Interested candidates are supposed to declare their intention at that meeting.

Speculation has been centered around three names: Jack Smith, chairman of the Fayette County Commission; Charles Bannister, chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission; and Tad Leithead, who until recently was an executive at Cousins Properties and is now running his own firm.

Smith, who was participating on a panel this week at the Regional Leadership Institute in St. Simons, coyly remarked that he had heard rumors to the effect that he would be seeking the ARC chairmanship.

Responding to an email sent last week, Bannister made a similar statement. “That is a good possibility,” Bannister wrote.

And Leithead, who also was at the RLI conference in St. Simons, said he had not yet made up his mind about whether he would seek the chairmanship. If successful in his quest, Leithead would be the first citizen member to chair the ARC. As long as I can remember, the ARC has been led by county commission chairs.

The chairmanship of the Atlanta Regional Commission is a delicate balancing act. An elected official, by design, must be sure to represent his or her constituency. But as ARC chairman, he or she must also carry a regional flag and promote a regional approach to tackling our problems.

It will be interesting to see who will seek this position, and more importantly, how regionally-minded he or she will be as chair.

The candidates will be given five minutes in October to tell their fellow ARC board members why they should be the new chair. Then there will be an election at the ARC board meeting in early December. Even at that meeting, other people can still enter their names in the ARC chairman’s race.