Category: David Pendered

By David Pendered

MARTA’s general manager is sharply questioning the way costs are being calculated for transit systems in the proposed penny sales tax for transportation.

The cost estimates for transit include 20-years worth of maintenance and operational costs. The estimates do not include any revenues – nothing from fares, federal transportation sources, or even local property taxes, such those that pay for shuttles at Atlantic Station.

Beverly Scott, MARTA’s GM and CEO, said she intends to provide a counterpoint to the current cost estimates for new transit.

“When you talk about what the split should be [between roads and transit], when you see prices on transit become enormously big, it has an impact on what people will want to build because transit becomes so much more expensive,” Scott said.

By David Pendered

The proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation that voters will decide next year may last longer than the 10-year period that will be on the ballot.

That’s because elected officials are starting to talk publicly about the as-yet imaginary second phase of the proposed sales tax.

Two reasons for the presumed desire to extend the 10-year sales tax appear to be emerging:

By David Pendered

The recent white paper by the Fair Share Initiative on the need to fund transit projects with the proposed penny sales tax contains a footnote that’s startling enough on its own merit.

But it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The footnote raises the issue of the pending federal reauthorization bill for highway and transit spending.

The current proposal before Congress is to cut federal revenues to Georgia by 35 percent in the next fiscal year, according to one report.

By David Pendered

Fair Share for Transit released Tuesday a $4 billion wish list of projects and a policy statement on what it says is the need to invest sales tax dollars in transit and other modes of alternative transportation.

The document was released in advance of a Thursday morning meeting of the five voting members of the executive committee of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable. The committee is to work on the draft list of projects to be put before voters for funding in 2012.

Fair Share’s document concludes with this chilling statement:

“If we do not advance viable alternatives now … we will mark the passage of half a century since our region took a significant step forward on permanent public transportation while cities like Dallas and Denver, Charlotte and Houston, Tampa and Phoenix celebrate what they have built.”

By David Pendered

Atlanta has strengthened its economic development ties with Paris, which is on a $50 billion program to secure its position as a capital of global commerce.

Atlanta and Paris signed a five-year deal last week to promote each other as a business destination. The target audience is companies that already do business, or may expand, in one of the cities and want to reach a foreign market.

Paris evidently has a plan to develop its business ties to the Southeast, and Atlanta is now part of it. Paris signed a similar trade agreement in April with Memphis.

The Paris/Memphis deal envisions the strengthening of an air-freight trade route between the cities. The goal is to put businesses, and their products, just a few hours from their clients and end markets.

By David Pendered

Atlanta has increased the pressure on companies that want to sell food, drink and other concessions at the Atlanta airport’s new international concourse that opens in Spring 2012.

The shops must be open by April 15, 2012 regardless of the date a company is allowed to begin construction on space it leases in Concourse F, according to city’s new terms for the concessions contracts.

For passengers who use Concourse F, the new requirement seems intended to ensure that service will be available at all of the planned restaurants, beverage and retail shops. And there isn’t to be any annoying sound of construction.

By David Pendered

Atlanta appears to be reinforcing its effort to help small businesses get a piece of the pending food and drink concessions trade at the airport.

The city’s procurement department has added language to its request for proposals for the airport concessions contracts.

The new language hammers home Atlanta’s decision to require the big prime operators to allow their sub-tenants to join up with other prime operators that are competing for contracts.

The amendment, released July 6, will result in the city being about a month behind schedule in receiving proposals to run the airport’s food and drink concessions.

By David Pendered

A future Wal-Mart store and other civic projects are rekindling hopes for community renewal in a neighborhood west of the Georgia Dome in Downtown Atlanta.

The Wal-Mart is to open in the summer of 2012 in Historic Westside Village, a retail center located at 825 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It’s located across MLK Drive from the original Paschal’s restaurant.

Wal-Mart is expected to bring more than decent groceries, a pharmacy, money center and jobs to the community, according to Tillman Ward, a community leader who was born in the neighborhood.

By David Pendered

A new wrinkle emerged Thursday in the tense discussion about the fate of Fort McPherson – the contents of the confidential business plan that is to guide the fort’s conversion to civilian use.

The business plan is emerging as a contention because it has guided the redevelopment plan a state authority has approved for the fort’s land.

Over the past month, the redevelopment plan has come under fire from a non-profit group – Georgia Stand Up – that raises questions about whether the current plan will help or hurt the surrounding community.

Suddenly, the business plan that envisions construction of a biotech research facility near the center of the property is at the center of debate over how best to reuse a 488-acre site that the military is abandoning after more than 120 years.

By David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council has again rejected a proposal to extend the drinking hours at bars in the city.

The vote clears the way for an effort to tighten the city’s alcohol ordinances. The goal of that legislation is to make it easier for Atlanta to close businesses that habitually violate the city’s alcohol codes and escape closure through legal loopholes.

The council has considered extending bar hours periodically since 2003, when the hours were shortened following several years of violent outbursts that were linked to late-night drinking.

By David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council is slated to vote Tuesday on a proposal to extend the legal drinking hours at bars to 4 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays, and Saturdays until 2:55 a.m.

The council has been advised by its Public Safety Committee to reject the measure.

However, it’s a truism that the fate of any legislation is uncertain once it’s put before a legislative body. Especially a proposal that comes as a surprise after a holiday weekend – as is the case with this one.

By David Pendered

A new organization in Atlanta met Thursday for the first annual EcoFest Sustainable Development Opportunities Forum.

The event kicked off with a morning-long driving tour of the Beltline, the sweeping urban renewal project in Atlanta that embodies many ideals of the new organization. An afternoon slate of speakers talked about green business opportunities, green efforts at Atlanta’s airport and energy efficiency.

Verdant Elements, Inc. is a non-profit that intends to foster healthy lifestyles through sustainable development and environmental strategies, said VEI’s board chairman, Gregory Wilson.

By David Pendered

The state’s tollway authority is negotiating the planned relocation of Amtrak’s train station from Buckhead to Atlantic Station, the mini city on the western edge of Midtown.

The station’s proposed relocation was to be the first item discussed at a meeting convened today by Emory McClinton, a member of the state transportation board. The matter never came up.

“Gena [Evans] is negotiating it. That ‘s all I can say,” McClinton said after the meeting.

Evans is executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority. The agency is best known for collecting tollsa long Ga. 400.

By David Pendered

The state’s tollway authority is negotiating the planned relocation of Amtrak’s train station from Buckhead to Atlantic Station, the mini city on the western edge of Midtown.

The station’s proposed relocation was to be the first item discussed at a meeting convened today by state Transportation Commissioner Emory McClinton. The matter never came up.

“Gena [Evans] is negotiating it. That’s all I can say,” McClinton said after the meeting.

Evans is executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority. The agency is best known for collecting tolls along Ga 400.

Anyone who wanted to discuss Atlanta’s proposed comprehensive development plan at a meeting in a church Tuesday evening in Southwest Atlanta left gravely disappointed.

The crowd of more than 60 who crowded into a meeting hall at St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church wanted to talk about issues that nag them over the kitchen table every day.

Where’s the city’s plan to attract industrial jobs? Why does Atlanta plan to use property taxes to induce development when existing building have such high vacancy rates? Who’s looking after folks at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure?

Don’t even talk about redeveloping Fort McPherson once the military vacates Sept. 15. Some of its neighbors think the city’s already cut a secret deal with developers

By David Pendered

Metro Atlanta’s business recruiters intend to make a strong pitch to the international biotech community at a conference that begins today in Washington, D.C.

When the recruiters open shop, they will be swimming in the deep end of the biotech pool.

More than 1,700 companies are expected to be represented at the BIO International Convention, which runs through June 30. The event bills itself as “the world’s largest gathering of thought leaders and decision makers in biotechnology.”

By David Pendered

Four metro Atlanta politicians who are to lead the process of deciding which transportation projects to fund with a proposed penny sales tax have passed the first part of the task to regional planners.

The four elected officials voted Thursday to have the Atlanta Regional Commission cull their $23 billion wish list. The vote came soon after the top Transportation Department official working on the project admonished the elected officials to get to work.

“I recommend you pull your sleeves up and get working,” said Todd Long, GDOT’s planning director. “It’s coming quick. You’ve got to cull that list down.”

In short order, the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable voted 4-0 to have the ARC take a first pass at the wish list. The ARC is charged with cutting the wish list of transportation projects in half – from $23 billion to $11.5 billion – by July 7.

By David Pendered

Four metro Atlanta politicians who are to lead the process of deciding which transportation projects to fund with a proposed penny sales tax today passed the first part of the task to regional planners.

The Atlanta Regional Commission was charged with cutting the wish list of transportation projects in half – from $23 billion to $11.5 billion.

The Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable voted 4-0 to have the ARC take a first pass at the wish list.

By David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed welcomed the city’s new chief of economic development on Wednesday and suggested that the Atlanta Development Authority move to the building that once housed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

ADA President and CEO Brian McGowan attended his first ADA meeting since taking office about two weeks ago.

McGowan, who is fresh from service with President Obama’s administration, outlined his vision for furthering the city’s growth. He spoke after Reed’s comments about relocating the ADA.

Reed, who chairs the ADA board, said the ADA should consider moving to the former AJC building. The AJC donated the site to the city and it now is being converted for reuse by various city entities. About 150 city workers are now assigned there, Reed said.

By David Pendered

The state authority overseeing the conversion of Fort McPherson to civilian use doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills.

The authority expects to end its fiscal year this month owing a total of $145,207. The authority expects to end the year with a cash reserve of just under $25,000.

The shortfall represents about 9 percent of the authority’s $1.3 million budget. The figures are outlined in a budget report released Tuesday at a meeting of the Fort McPherson Local Implementing Redevelopment Authority.

“Everybody’s supportive, but money is scarce,” said Jack Sprott, the authority’s executive director.