Author Archives: Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

As 68,000 soccer fans filled the Georgia Dome with enthusiastic cheers Wednesday night, Arthur Blank was entertaining Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer in his suite during most of the scoreless match between Mexico and Nigeria.

It was not a casual sporting event for either of them. Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons; and Garber are closing in on a deal for Blank to become a new franchise owner for a MLS team that would play in the new Falcons stadium that is supposed to open before the 2017 football season.

The sold-out Mexico-Nigeria match — a prelude the 2014 World Cup in Brazil — was yet another indicator of how Atlanta would welcome professional soccer.

By Maria Saporta

Cities can be fanciful and fun.

In fact, if we want our cities to be loved, they must spark our imagination, bring smiles to our faces, give us special memories we can keep forever.

That was the message that Peter Kagayama shared with members of the of the Midtown Alliance at its annual meeting on the morning of Feb. 26 at the Fox Theatre.

Kagayama, who is based in Tampa, is co-founder and producer of the Creative Cities Summit. He has written a book: “For the Love of Cities,” a guidepost for how cities can become more lovable.

By Maria Saporta

In a series of leadership moves at the Home Depot announced Friday, a front-runner for a successor to CEO Frank Blake is emerging.

The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer announced that Craig Menear, 56, has been named president of U.S. retail, effective immediately. That will give him responsibility over most of the company’s operations. Previously Menear was executive vice president of merchandising, responsible for all merchandising departments and merchandising services and strategy; the company’s supply chain network; global sourcing; vendor management; marketing; and online sales.

By Maria Saporta

Once again, the elected officials on the Atlanta Regional Commission reached a stalemate when trying to elect a citizen member from the 11th district.

It is the third time that the body has tried to elect a citizen member from a district that covers three different counties — more than 50 percent is in DeKalb County, the next greatest share is in north Fulton and then there is a sliver in east Cobb.

The citizen member for that district has been Tad Leithead, who is from east Cobb. Leithead was chairman of the ARC until the end of 2013 when he decided to not seek re-election. Leithead’s citizen member term also expired at the end of the year.

At the same time, DeKalb County CEO Lee May proposed Mickey McGuire, an urban planner and policy expert from Dunwoody, to be the citizen member from that district. That set up an election between Leithead and McGuire.

By Maria Saporta

As a nod to the impact he has had on cities, Atlanta’s own Egbert L.J. Perry has been named as chairman of Fannie Mae.

Perry, chairman and CEO of the Integral Group, has served on the board of Fannie Mae since 2008. He will assume his Fannie Mae chairmanship in late March.

“As we continue to support America’s economic recovery through the creation of a better housing finance system, we are excited and honored to have Egbert as our new chairman,” said Tim Mayopoulos, CEO of Fannie Mae. “Egbert’s appointment further reflects our commitment to the continued reform of the nation’s housing finance system.”

Perry founded Integral in 1993 to provide real estate development, advisory and investment management services and is a celebrated innovator in urban revitalization.

By Maria Saporta

Former Mayor Andrew Young used to call Atlanta the gateway to Africa.

On Monday, Atlanta leaders took one big step to open that gateway when they launched the year-long Africa Atlanta 2014 collaboration to highlight and strengthen their cross-cultural ties.

“I’m convinced that Atlanta is well-positioned to become a significant partner,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed at a press conference Monday afternoon at City Hall. He added that six of the fastest-growing economies in the next 15 years will be in Africa, and that Atlanta would like to be a friendly partner in that growth.

The Africa Atlanta 2014 initiative, which has the tagline: “Feel the Soul of Africa in the Heart of Atlanta,” includes dozens of sponsors and partner organizations that will be part of the festivities occurring throughout the year.

By David Luse

I attended an advanced screening of Need For Speed earlier this week. Stars Aaron Paul and Kid Cudi, and director Scott Waugh were available afterward for a Q&A to promote and talk about their film.

The three of them then invited everyone out for pizza at Ormsby’s, a West Midtown hotspot that supports a young, intellectual twenty-something crowd. The hilarious thing was that the owner or manager-on-duty of Ormsby’s disallowed outside pizza. So we were served from a rental Suburban across the street. It was all handled with good humor, and for Ormsby’s part, it was reasonable given that they serve food. Everyone went in for drinks afterward.

Well while sipping on a Reissdorf (they really have a fantastic beer selection) I chatted with the director and squeezed a question out of Aaron Paul. If you don’t care about the movie, skip the next four paragraphs.

By Maria Saporta

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Wednesday that Bernice King should turn over her late father’s Nobel Peace Prize award and her personal Bible to a court-controlled safe deposit box.

The judge said he would hold onto the keys of that safe deposit box until the case has been settled.

Bernice King’s two brothers — Dexter King and Martin Luther King III — have taken legal action against her for not turning over those two prized possessions so they can sell them to a private buyer.

By Douglas Sams of the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Maria Saporta

Morris Brown College wants to put most of its historic 35-acre Atlanta campus on the market.

The move comes after an attempt to reach an agreement between Morris Brown and Atlanta developer Pope & Land Enterprises Inc. appears to have fallen through. Read the full documents regarding the sale.

The campus is near one of Atlanta’s most ambitious projects — a more than $1 billion stadium for the Atlanta Falcons. Morris Brown is just west of the Falcons stadium site at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Northside Drive, and the future of the campus will be at the center of discussions about how the entire area is redeveloped.

By Maria Saporta

Sixty years ago, MAP International was founded by the late J. Raymond Knighton in Chicago when he accepted a donation of $25,000 in surplus medicines from a leading pharmaceutical company.

That became the mission and working model of the international nonprofit, which now has its global headquarters in Atlanta and its operational base in Brunswick. For the past 60 years, MAP International has been providing medicines, helping prevent diseases and promoting health to create hope and lasting change in communities around the world.

By Maria Saporta

The designers of the proposed Atlanta Falcons stadium released several new images on Feb. 14 to show how the facility will look from multiple vantage points.

The basic design elements are similar to the images that have already been released, but there are several new details that give a better understanding of how the stadium will be positioned in relation to the areas around it.

By Maria Saporta

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard will be stepping down as president of the Georgia Conservancy at the end of June, the organization announced Monday.

Howard has led the Georgia Conservancy since 2009. He will remain as a senior advisor and as a member of the Advisory board with a focus on helping to develop the Georgia Conservancy’s 2015-2019 Strategic Plan, continuing to expand its Land Conservation Initiative and easing the transition to a new president, according to the press release.

The organization board of trustees is planning to engage a search firm to help identify candidates for a successor, and the goal is to have a new president in place by July 1, the start of the Conservancy’s new fiscal year.

By Maria Saporta

The memorial service celebrating the life of J. Mack Robinson on Friday captured the essence of the man — someone who succeeded in several lines of business but never let that success change his humble, self-effacing nature.

Robinson, 90, passed away on Feb. 7.

Ambassador Edward Elson, his friend for nearly 50 years, described Robinson as a “quintessential American hero” who could have emerged from a “Jimmy Stewart movie from the 1930s.”

Elson used several adjectives to describe his friend — handsome, wise, intuitive, soft-spoken, innocent, fair, yet highly sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

“He was at home anywhere,” said Elson, adding that he would mingle among presidents and princes as well as corporate moguls. “Yet Mack never seemed to understand how he got there. He never could fully appreciate his own genius. He was always so surprised by his own success.”