Maria Saporta, executive editor, is a longtime Atlanta business, civic and urban affairs journalist with a deep knowledge of our city, our region and state. From 2008 to 2020, she wrote weekly columns and news stories for the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Prior to that, she spent 27 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, becoming its business columnist in 1991. Maria received her Master’s degree in urban studies from Georgia State and her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Maria was born in Atlanta to European parents and has two young adult children. She launched SaportaReport in February 2009.
The Atlanta University Center Consortium has received an $8.25 million investment from UnitedHealth Group Inc. to strengthen the offerings of the colleges in the fields of data science.
The AUC Consortium brings together the four major historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) clustered on the westside of Atlanta – Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and the Morehouse School of Medicine – to work on areas of common interests.
Something funky is going on at Fort McPherson – again.
This time it involves the 145 acres under the control of the McPherson Implementating Local Redevelopment Authority.
Back in the 1980s, I had the pleasure of getting to know one of the most flamboyant developers who had entered the Atlanta market – A.C. Toh.
Toh made headlines in the 1980s by proposing to build a high-density international village on a 19-block area on the south part of downtown. Then Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young had taken Toh on a tour of the area, and together they envisioned what the place could be – a bustling new downtown with high-rise residential and office towers.
Forget all the perceptions of metro Atlanta being a poster child for sprawl.
A new report looking at the urbanizing trends in the country’s 30 largest metro areas shocked one of the co-authors – Chris Leinberger, a real estate expert who is a professor at the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University School of Business.
The Westside Future Fund has a acquired the “yellow store” – a key piece of property in the English Avenue community.The announcement was made by John Ahmann, president and CEO of the Westside Future Fund, on Friday at the end of the Transform Westside Summit meeting at the Gathering Spot.“The Westside Future Fund
The business community is united against a possible state takeover of the Atlanta-owned Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.The Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP)– the high-powered group of business and civic leaders that serves as a blue-ribbon sounding board for Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms – is committed to helping the city maintain control of the Atlanta airport.
These days, in nearly every community forum in Atlanta, someone mentions the city’s unfortunate top ranking for income inequality in the nation.
Most often, the studies cited are for the city of Atlanta, which has a population of less than 500,000 people in a region with about 5 million people.
And the new name is …Truist.The top executives of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corp. and Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. announced Wednesday that the name of their new merged bank will be Truist – a name picked to reflect the heritage of both financial institutions.
The A-list Sunday night dinner – “In Bernie’s Honor” – raised an historic $117.7 million in celebration of Bernie Marcus’ 90th birthday.The co-founder of The Home Depot Inc. was feted by his fellow co-founders – Arthur Blank and Ken Langone – as well as the top business, civic and government leaders in Georgia.
The proposed investment priorities of More MARTA in the city of Atlanta feels as though we’re coming up short.In gauging the response of the proposed priorities and timeline of the More MARTA plan, it appears few are satisfied or comfortable with the plan as it stands.
BB&T and SunTrust are down to a “handful” of possible names for the new merged bank, according to Bill Rogers, chairman and CEO of SunTrust Bank.Rogers said the banks likely will announce the new name by the end of the month.
As it prepares to merge with BB&T, Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks will double its investment in the Atlanta community each year over the next three years.“It has been $50 million for the last three years,” said Bill Rogers, SunTrust’s chairman and CEO, in an extensive interview on Tuesday. “We are going to double that amount. It will be $100 million a year for next three years for a total of $300 million.”
The 2019 HOPE Global Forum, once again, showed capitalism at its best.
The forum, held at Atlanta Hyatt Regency from May 29 to 31, brought together what has become one of the most diverse gatherings of business leaders and the general public. The 4,000-plus attendees literally came from all walks of life from many different corners of the world.
And the messages were powerful.
Tony Ressler, the majority owner of the Atlanta Hawks, said Georgia’s passage of the anti-abortion “heartbeat bill” was “really bad business” for the state.
A targeted initiative by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to preserve African American history is taking hold in Atlanta. The historic Alonzo Herndon Home Museum in Vine City is the most recent example.
Atlanta is beginning to prepare its official bid to host the semi-final matches of the 2026 World Cup later this summer, according to Dan Corso, president of the Atlanta Sports Council.
Corso was one of the guests who spoke to the board of the Georgia Department of Economic Development at SunTrust Park on Wednesday afternoon scheduled before a game of the Atlanta Braves.
When it comes to quality of life measures, Atlanta seems stuck in the middle.The latest example was last week’s release of the annual ParkScore ranking by the Trust for Public Land.
The ribbon-cutting Thursday afternoon for CODA – a research and office hub designed by John Portman & Associates and developed by Portman Holdings. The lead tenant in the building will be Georgia Tech. The ribbon-cutting brought top officials, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp among others. The city of Atlanta was represented by Eloisa Klementich, president of […]
A sense of nostalgia permeated the 2019 annual meeting of Home Depot shareholders Thursday morning at the Cobb Galleria.The presence of Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank provided an opportunity for executives and shareholders alike to thank the founders for the $108 billion company that they have created.
Despite the MARTA referendum loss in Gwinnett County on March 19, county and transportation leaders stand firm on the need to bring transit to Georgia’s second largest county.
“Regardless of the way the vote went in March, there is so much need for transit and mobility relief in Gwinnett,” said Charlotte Nash, chair of the Gwinnett County Commission.
