Category: David Pendered

For the first time, Atlanta-area business leaders will visit China with the main goal of selling goods and services rather than bringing home foreign direct investment.

China has an appetite for metro Atlanta’s products including bio-tech, health care, information technology, and some of what the region is well known for – architecture, construction and engineering services, according to Ric Hubler, director of global business growth for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

“China is a very large market with phenomenal growth and abundant business opportunities for Atlanta companies,” said Hans Gant, the chamber’s senior vice president of economic development. “International trade leads to the type of quality jobs that we want to create here in metro Atlanta, and it makes our companies stronger in the global economy.”

A senior vice president of an Atlanta development company, who serves on the state authority overseeing the redevelopment of Fort McPherson, says he won’t vote on his employer’s proposal to the authority to redevelop part of the fort.

John Akin is a senior vice president of Carter, whose specialty is multi-family investments. Carter and H.J. Russell & Co. comprise one of two teams that have submitted proposals to develop a 113-acre node of residential and commercial uses at the 488-acre Fort McPherson.

The other joint venture is led by Cleveland-based Forest City, with local partners Cousins Properties and Integral Group. In November, the consortium closed a deal with the state Department of Transportation to build the bus/rail/transit station, and environs, that is to transform Downtown into a vibrant urban core. “The gulch” is the affectionate local name for the locale.

Doug Hooker brought a message of regional unity to the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce Wednesday and urged the audience to expect to lead the region as well as their county.

The presentation was one of several slated for the new executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, who took office Oct. 31. Later Wednesday, Hooker was to address the Northwest Community Alliance, in Atlanta. His calendar has speeches slated in Rockdale and Henry counties.

A communications team now is in place to promote the 1 percent transportation sales tax that is to be on the ballot in less than 28 weeks.

The team is comprised of three individuals who will replace Liz Flowers, who resigned as communications manager in November. The new team includes Bert Brantley, a former spokesman to then-Gov. Sonny Perdue; Jeff Dickerson, a former journalist who has handled crisis communications for several clients; and Saba Long, who recently worked on the campaign of Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell.

The Atlanta BeltLine intends to tell more stories about itself and other neat urban developments through its new blog.

“We’ll have more dispatches from the field,” said BeltLine spokesman Ethan Davidson. “More reports about things that are happening in other cities. A lot more information about the BeltLine and other related things that people might be interested in.”

The BeltLine already reaches a wide audience through its current social media. The new blog was introduced through a soft launch last month, and is slated to become a big part of the new, redesigned website the BeltLine plans to unveil by the end of March.

The conflict between Common Cause of Georgia and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed continued to escalate Monday.

The two sides evidently have not talked since the Atlanta City Council on Jan. 3 approved a $3 billion package of concessions contracts as recommended by Reed’s administration. However, each side is making its case through written comments that Common Cause is posting on the Internet.

On Monday, Common Cause board member John Sugg posted his response to Reed’s comments about him in a letter the mayor sent to Common Cause Chairman Lesley Ward. Sugg’s letter is dated Jan. 11 and posted on a blog used by Common Cause of Georgia.

Tom Baxter wrote on this page last week that one of the disappointments of visitors from Japan is the discovery that they couldn’t visit Tara because it was a product of Margaret Mitchell’s imagination.

An approximation of the world that fueled Mitchell’s thoughts does remain visible in a town less than two hour’s drive southeast of the state Capitol – Milledgeville, which served as the state capital before and during the Civil War.

The town is rich in history of the war and way of life that was a precursor to the Civil Rights movement, which is commemorated in Monday’s observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Milledgeville today is a town at a crossroad as residents prepare for life after job losses related to the Great Recession.

A glimmer of hope about the economy may be emanating from the Atlanta Boat Show.

Some 25,000 visitors are expected this weekend at the 50th annual boat show in Atlanta. Some of them will attend with plans to buy vessels and toys that promise relaxation and good times with friends and family, or to check out marinas that advertise a suitable lifestyle.

Even in this trying era after the Great Recession, Georgia still ranks in the top 15 states in terms of boat registrations. Together with its sister state of Florida, which is No. 1 in marine commerce, Georgia stands as a major market for the marine industry, according to the show’s manager, Larry Berryman.

To make way for the Peachtree Streetcar, GRTA’s Xpress buses will be rerouted off Peachtree Street in Downtown Atlanta starting March 5.

“With the Peachtree Streetcar coming, we want to accommodate all operations of the streetcar,” Jannine Miller, GRTA’s executive director, said Wednesday, after GRTA’s board unanimously approved the new Xpress routes.

From 4,000 to 5,000 commuters a day will be affected by the change. Staffers with the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority predict that some riders may stop riding Xpress buses because of longer walks to their destinations, according to the resolution approved
.

A lot should become clear this week about the likelihood that a portion of Fort McPherson will be redeveloped anytime soon.

Tuesday is the deadline for proposals from master developers who want to oversee development of a 113-acre node of commercial and residential uses. Later this week, Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to unveil his 2013 budget, which will show if the governor recommended funds for a planned science and technology research center at the fort.

A contentious issue in Atlanta’s recent airport concessions programs has come to a close, with Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration fulfilling its promise to release the names of members of the selection teams that chose food, drink and retail concessionaires.

The administration also released information it had not previously offered to provide – the score sheets that show the final rating the selection teams awarded to each team. The underlying data used to create the final ratings were not provided.

Reed had promised in June to release the names of members of the selection team as part of his effort to show that the concessions competition was clean and above board.

In less than seven months, Common Cause of Georgia went from being ignored on the steps of Atlanta City Hall to being challenged in the hot seat of the council’s Chamber over its role in the debate over $3 billion worth of airport concessions contracts.

Mayor Kasim Reed said the organization “stinks.” Councilmember H. Lamar Willis said it promotes a political campaign system that “reserves political office for the aristocracy of America.”

William Perry, the group’s executive director, responded from the hot seat: “If you don’t like the message, attack the messenger.”

The Atlanta City Council approved Tuesday night a $3 billion package of airport concessions.

The actual outcome was almost anti-climatic, coming as it did after almost five hours of debate. At times, the issue seemed to become a vehicle for various officials to vent their spleen over frustrations that have mounted as the selection process ground on four months longer than expected for a variety of reasons.

Check back for updates

After hearing an emotion-packed speech from Mayor Kasim Reed, who lambasted Common Cause of Georgia and its executive director, the Atlanta City Council voted to break until about 7:45 p.m. to hear legal advice and eat dinner.

The council is still clearing its throat over the $3 billion package of airport concessions put forward by Reed’s administration. The council has not discussed how late it intends to work before voting to approve, reject or delay the concessions package.

Check back for updates.

The Atlanta City Council continues this afternoon to debate the $3 billion package of airport concessions proposed by Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration.

The meeting began with comments from about 17 individuals who expressed their views on airporty contracts. The council then entered parliamentary position that allows the entire council to act as a committee to discuss the proposal – a position that allows for more conversation than permitted during a regular meeting, and which greatly extends the length of the meeting.

The Atlanta City Council is slated to vote Tuesday on a bundle of airport concessions contracts worth more than $3 billion over the next decade.

Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration started developing on the package well before January 2011, when it hosted a convention with the concessions industry. Now, despite the administration’s best efforts, the package seems to be embroiled in many of the questions of cronyism that have plagued Atlanta’s airport deals for years.

The general questions being raised are familiar in any major public-private venture. In this case, they boil down to two points:

The Atlanta City Council is entering the final weekend of what is likely to be intense period of discussion over its scheduled Jan. 3 vote to award airport concessions contracts worth more than $3 billion.

The rumor mill abounds with reports that politically connected individuals, or their friends or relatives, stand to profit from their interests in some of the companies recommended by Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration. No reports can be verified now, in part because the administration is not revealing details about the proposals received.

The administration has taken the position that it is being as open and transparent as possible under state law.

Atlanta’s chief of the airport says there is no reason the Atlanta City Council should delay adopting a package of concessions contracts worth more than $3 billion, as was suggested Wednesday by Common Cause of Georgia.

“We believe that the city council will have had ample opportunity to study and review the RFP (request for proposals) process and recommendations of award in time for their Jan. 3 vote,” said Louis Miller, the airport’s general manager. “We will continue to make ourselves available to meet with any of the council members and discuss any questions and concerns that they may have.”

Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration delivered its list of recommended companies to oversee the food and drink establishments at the airport, along with some retailers. The process has been underway since January and now is four months behind the schedule Miller announced in March.

Common Cause of Georgia today called on the Atlanta City Council to slow down the consideration of the multi-billion dollar airport concessions deal it is slated to consider Jan. 3.

“We hope the selection of proposed contractors has been a fair and impartial process”, said William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. “Unfortunately it has not been transparent enough for anyone to know if it has indeed been fair and impartial.”

Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration delivered the proposed deal to the homes of members of the council’s Transportation Committee the night of Dec. 13. Airport General Manager Louis Miller told the committee the next day that he could arrange private briefings with council members to answer any questions.

There’s money and then there’s politics. Both are likely on the agenda of the Atlanta City Council’s Jan. 3 meeting.

The council is under pressure from Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration to approve more than $3 billion worth of airport concessions deals. The same day, the council is expected to vote to create new boundaries for council districts – an exercise in balancing black voters in a city that recorded a significant drop in estimated population in many historically black neighborhoods.

Both votes are for legislation that will stand at least a decade.