Category: ATL Business Chronicle

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 18, 2014

While Aaron’s Inc. has been fending off an unsolicited takeover offer from the Florida-based private equity firm Vintage Capital Management LLC, the Atlanta-based rent-to-own retailer has been putting the pieces in place to grow the company from within.

On the morning of April 15, Aaron’s CEO Ronald W. Allen made multiple announcements to show that the company was following its own strategic game plan to keep it growing as an independent company.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 18, 2014

Compared with their national counterparts, the boards of Atlanta’s largest public companies tend to have more retired executives than active ones, according to the Atlanta Board Index 2013 compiled by the Spencer Stuart search firm.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 11, 2014

Stability is a word that defines the Atlanta Ballet

Arturo Jacobus, who has served as the Atlanta Ballet’s executive director since December 2009, has signed on for another five-year contract — this time for the more aptly titled role of president and CEO.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 4, 2014

Goodbye Cobb County. For the first time in 40 years, John Williams— the legendary apartment developer and metro power broker — will not be based in Cobb County.

Williams signed a lease on March 28 to move his current company — Preferred Apartment Communities — from the One Overton Park building where he has been for 10 years to the Medici building on Northside Drive in the city of Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 4, 2014

At the March board meeting of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, 2014 Chairman Richard Anderson issued a call to action.

“We are going to have to step up as a business community and take a much more active role in stopping this social legislation that doesn’t help us in the global marketplace,” Anderson, the CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc., told the top- tier group of business leaders meeting behind closed doors.

By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 4, 2014

The Atlanta Hawks aren’t sitting on the bench as the city’s other pro teams try to lure more fans with new stadiums and entertainment venues.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 28, 2014

The opening date for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights has slipped a few weeks with a soft opening now planned for May 30 and a grand public opening on June 23.

Originally plans had been to have the new attraction open on May 22 before the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 21, 2014

The Piedmont Park Conservancy is experiencing a transition in leadership with the departure of its CEO, Yvette Bowden, who left in mid-January to pursue other opportunities.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 21, 2014

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank wants to build a world-class football stadium for the city, yet he believes that revitalizing the surrounding communities is an even more important calling.

But now the stadium project is literally at a crossroads, threatening to poison the relationship between the Falcons, the city and the community for years, if not decades, to come.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 14, 2014

Less than three months since she’s been in her new role, Metro Atlanta Chamber President and CEO Hala Moddelmog is beginning to put her team in place.

A series of staff moves are being announced on Friday, March 14, to help the business organization emphasize its strategic focus areas.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 7, 2014

The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta could adopt the song “Old Friends” by Simon & Garfunkel as its soundtrack.

It is the “old friends” who have come together to raise $6.8 million of the Center’s $7.5 million campaign since November 2012 to reinvest in the 52-acre facility that serves about 55,000 individuals a year.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 7, 2014

The Atlanta Braves are so convinced they will meet their ambitious schedule of building a new stadium in Cobb by April 2017 that they have no Plan B.

“We have not thought about it,” said Mike Plant, executive vice president of business operations for the Atlanta Braves. “A hundred percent of our focus is building that stadium and playing there in April 2017. We are going to do what we said we are going to do. We said we are going to build a great ballpark and destination.”

On Nov. 11, 2013, the Atlanta Braves shocked both the city of Atlanta and the metro area when the baseball team announced it would be building a new $672 million ballpark in Cobb County with $300 million of it in public funds.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 28, 2014

Just six months after the opening of Junior Achievement of Georgia’s successful Discovery Center in downtown Atlanta, a second center is being planned for Gwinnett County.

The new Discovery Center, which likely would open in August 2015 at the new comprehensive Gwinnett high school campus, would include a Finance Park and BizTown — similar to the real-world simulations at the Chick-fil-A Discovery Center at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 28, 2014

Atlanta is campaigning to become one of a handful of cities to be designated a Global Smart City for Mobility — a move that it hopes will catapult it among the world’s technology capitals.

A contingent of Atlanta mobility executives and economic development leaders were in Barcelona, Spain, from Feb. 24 to Feb. 27 attending the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the largest mobility summit in the world, attracting more than 70,000 people.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 21, 2014

The East Lake Foundation has accomplished a rare feat during an economic recession in Atlanta. It has raised more than $75 million in less than three years to build the Drew Charter School Senior Academy.

When one reviews who was on the campaign committee, then it’s easier to understand how they were able to raise that much money during a challenging economy.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 14, 2014

Thanks to an anonymous donor who made a record-setting $103.9 million gift at the end of the year, the Community Foundation was able to enjoy a record-setting year in 2013.

The Community Foundation received a total of $196 million in gifts in 2013 — the most it has received in its 63-year history.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 14, 2014

Two years after Southwest Airlines began flying into Atlanta, perhaps no entity has been more pleased with the results than Delta Air Lines Inc.

Southwest entered the Atlanta market by acquiring discount carrier AirTran Airways — an airline that had made Atlanta its key hub and had been going head-to-head with Delta in many markets.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 07, 2014

Atlanta-based ToolBank USA — and its nine ToolBanks across the country — is now ready within 72 hours to help any community in the United States struck by disaster.

The Atlanta nonprofit unveiled its new mobile disaster unit on Feb. 6 that it will be able to deploy to any community that has been ravaged by storms or hurricanes or earthquakes or any catastrophe requiring large-scale volunteer response teams working on the ground.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 31, 2014

Rhodes Hall, the home of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, needs some love (and money).

The Georgia Trust is launching the public phase of a $1.7 million campaign to fund the green rehabilitation and restoration of Rhodes Hall. It already has secured more than $1.5 million in grants and pledges.

Rhodes Hall is one of the last remaining grand mansions that used to line Peachtree Street at the turn of the last century.

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 31, 2014

For the Atlanta Braves to break ground on a new stadium in Cobb County by Jan. 1, 2015, a “Herculean effort” will be required to get all the legal and financial agreements in place.

The Braves, in fact, will have to accomplish in less than a year what is taking the Atlanta Falcons, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the city of Atlanta more than two years to put together. And the new Braves stadium is supposed to open ahead of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium in time for the 2017 baseball season.