Articles from the Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 6, 2015
It is highly unlikely someone from Atlanta will be the controlling owner of the Atlanta Hawks when the sale of the basketball team is completed.
According to multiple interviews and other published reports, all the leading members of interested bidders are from other cities. In fact, one report in the New York Daily News has said that Chinese conglomerate Fosun is bidding.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 27, 2015
The Atlanta-based Points of Light — the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service — has named Tracy Hoover as its new CEO.
Neil Bush, who chairs the Points of Light board, announced that Hoover would be succeeding Michelle Nunn in that role. Hoover has served as president of the nonprofit for the past 18 months while Nunn was on a leave of absence to run as Georgia’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 27, 2015
A couple came into Manuel’s Tavern in early February wearing stickers showing they had just toured the Carter Presidential Library.
Former President Jimmy Carter had recommended they go to Manuel’s for lunch, they told Brian Maloof, the owner of the tavern.
Such stories never cease to amaze Maloof. A former leader of the United States is telling people to eat at the tavern that his late father, Manuel Maloof, made famous.
By Maria Saporta and Doug Sams
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 27, 2015
Manuel’s Tavern, Atlanta’s signature gathering spot for journalists, politicians and community activists, is being sold.
But don’t panic.
Manuel’s will remain — in a refurbished condition — and it will still be operated by the Maloof family.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 20, 2015
When is an office lease so much more than just a lease? When it’s The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta signing a lease to move from downtown’s The Hurt Building to the One Ninety One Peachtree Tower.
It is a multi-layered Atlanta story that spans at least three generations of leaders, and one that completes the shift of the center of gravity of the city’s nonprofit sector.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 13, 2015
Georgia has made it into the top 10 states in the nation for green buildings, the first time it has made the prestigious list.
The U.S. Green Building Council released its annual ranking for LEED, the world’s most recognized green building rating system, and Georgia ranked No. 8 among the 50 states.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 13, 2015
If you want to find the City of Refuge, just search for sketchiest part of Atlanta — the Bluffs. That’s where you go if you’re up to no good.
So naturally, that’s where Bruce Deel wanted to plant his ministry and the City of Refuge. In 2004, a fenced-in, 8-acre piece industrial of property became available for $1.6 million on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard in the middle of gang territory.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 13, 2015
Dan Cathy has a recurring nightmare.
Looking to the future when the Atlanta Falcons are playing in their new state-of-the-art $1.4 billion retractable roof stadium, the CEO of Chick-fil-A Inc. fears Atlanta will be exposed as a true tale of two cities.
“The horror that I think of is when the Goodyear blimp is flying over the new stadium with Atlanta’s beautiful skyline in the background,” Cathy said. “And then the blimp shows the area on the other side of the stadium and it looks like a scene out of Baghdad.”
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 6, 2015
Zoo Atlanta has received a $1 million gift from the Delta Air Lines Foundation to kick off an unprecedented $20 million matching campaign to expand the zoo and create a scenic dining and entertainment venue on the site of the Cyclorama building.
“We are hoping that our lead gift will serve as a catalyst to get other corporations, foundations and individuals to get involved in this capital campaign,” said Tad Hutcheson, vice president of community affairs for Delta Air Lines Inc.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 6, 2015
When the city of Atlanta’s new schools chief Meria Carstarphen attended school in her hometown of Selma, Ala., in the 1970s, the ground-breaking 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march was never mentioned in her social studies or history classes.
So it was with great satisfaction that as superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools, Carstarphen was able to jump on the opportunity last month for 13,000 high school and middle school students to go see the recently released movie — “Selma” — free of charge and make that part of the system’s curriculum.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Feb. 6, 2015
The prospective buyer of Underground Atlanta envisions developing about 1,000 new residential units as part of his firm’s redevelopment plans — including a new high-rise residential tower on Peachtree Street.
T. Scott Smith, CEO of WRS Inc., which has a contract to buy the 12 acres from the city of Atlanta for $25.75 million, has submitted the preliminary site plan of the project to the city. Smith said when completed, WRS and its development partners will invest between $150 million to $200 million to redevelop Underground.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 23, 2015
The Junior Achievement Discovery Center at Gwinnett already has met and exceeded its fundraising target, and 96 percent of its storefronts have been leased, according to Jack Harris, president of Junior Achievement of Georgia.
Construction already is underway on the 50,000-square-foot center that is being built as part of a new high school in the middle of Gwinnett County.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 30, 2015
Atlanta is securing its spot as the “dominant player in the Southeast” — a position that Mayor Kasim Reed intends to solidify during his last three years in office.
This will be the theme of Reed’s “State of the City” breakfast speech, set for Feb. 4. During an hour-long editorial board meeting with Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 27, the mayor unveiled several details about a number of current issues and developments impacting the city.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 23, 2015
The Atlanta Women’s Foundation is getting a great start to the new year.
Kaiser Permanente of Georgia has awarded the Atlanta Women’s Foundation a $500,000 grant for its Promoting Women’s Mental Health & Wellbeing project to support programs in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
The project provides mental health services to low-income women in the five largest counties in the Atlanta region.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 23, 2015
W hen Atlanta lost the highly sought-after federal Choice grant awards in 2014, to say city leaders were disappointed would put it mildly.
Atlanta had been one of six finalists for the $30 million neighborhood revitalization grants that ended up being awarded to four cities – Columbus, Ohio; Norwalk, Conn.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Pittsburgh, Pa.
But the city of Atlanta has bounced back. It is busy improving its application for a $30 million Choice grant to improve the Vine City neighborhood as well as the communities around the Atlanta University Campus and Ashview Heights. The deadline is Feb. 9.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 16, 2015
The good news just keeps on coming. The Woodruff Arts Center has received a $6.6 million grant from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation to support a three-year initiative to make the center more accessible to families and students.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 16, 2015
The potential owner of the long-struggling Underground Atlanta project has been in talks with the operator of a sorely needed downtown amenity — a grocery store.
Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based real estate investment firm WRS Inc. reached an agreement with the city of Atlanta in December to buy Underground Atlanta for $25.75 million.
By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 16, 2015
The new $260 million NCR Corp. headquarters campus in Midtown is the city’s largest infusion of jobs in recent memory, a move that could spark more residential towers, stores and restaurants, and corporate relocations to the cultural and entertainment heart of Atlanta.
By Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta
Published on the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s website on Jan. 15, 2015
Atlanta’s economic development agency approved a resolution Thursday that permits the sale of Underground Atlanta to Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based real estate investment firm WRS Inc.
WRS reached an agreement with the city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta to buy the long-struggling retail and entertainment center for $25.75 million. The 12-acre site is planned as a mixed-use development with retail, residential and possibly a hotel.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Jan. 9, 2015
As Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers takes over as the 2015 chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 13, the word he keeps repeating is “relevance.”
The business organization is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. And for Bowers, what is most important is that the Georgia Chamber not only honors its past but pushes itself to be even stronger for the next 100 years.
