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Cherishing Atlanta’s 1996 Olympics legacy before it has all disappeared

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It takes 50 years for a structure to be eligible to get designated as an historic building.

At this rate we will have little to nothing left to designate to memorialize our Olympic history.

That point really hit home last week when Atlanta welcomed planners from around the country and the world at the American Planning Association convention.

A panel of people who had worked and observed Atlanta’s Olympics effort
(Randy Roark – Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta; Tina Arbes – Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games; Sian Llewellyn – Metropolitan Atlanta Olympic Games Authority; and yours truly) spoke of the legacy that remains.

Without a doubt, Centennial Olympic Park – which Llewellyn described as “an afterthought” – is Atlanta’s crowning Olympic jewel. The park has done more to transform downtown than any initiative in the past 30 years.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Integral’s GM project to be something totally new for region

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By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 2, 2014

Developer Egbert Perry wants to transform the idle Doraville, Ga., General Motors Corp. plant into a thriving transit destination.

Perry, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based The Integral Group LLC, confirmed the company could complete the acquisition of the 162-acre site by August.

Perry, one of the Atlanta’s best-known developers and chairman of Fannie Mae, is also teaming with Roswell, Ga.-based Macauley + Schmit on the project. The Integral-Macauley development group has the property under contract.

The site has been one of metro Atlanta’s most intriguing, since GM closed its plant in 2008 as part of a major restructuring.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Genuine Parts may move corporate HQ due to new Cobb Braves stadium

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 2, 2014

Genuine Parts Co. is considering moving from its current corporate headquarters located next door to the site of the new Braves stadium.

The Fortune 500 company, and Braves partner, best known for its NAPA auto parts stores, has had its headquarters at 2999 Circle 75 Parkway in Cobb County since 1979.

“We haven’t made a decision one way or another,” said Thomas Gallagher, chairman and CEO. “We are looking at several options. We have the option of staying right here, which we may do. We have the option of going to Wildwood. There are also some options outside of Cobb County.”

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Column: Skyland Trail marks a quarter century of ‘Changing Minds’

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 25, 2014

Skyland Trail will celebrate its 25th anniversary on May 2, but its real celebration will be all about “Changing Minds” in more ways than one.

The Atlanta-based nonprofit, a psychiatric treatment organization for adults with mental illness, has become a national model in the way adults afflicted with psychiatric illnesses are treated and perceived by the community at large. While the stigma has not totally gone away, it is now better understood and accepted than ever before.

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Atlanta region’s LINK delegation headed to Philadelphia – seeking consensus on economic development

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When it comes to competing globally against other U.S. regional cities, metro Atlanta enters those contests at a disadvantage.

The number of cities and counties that make up the Atlanta region can make it difficult for the metro area to present a cohesive marketing and economic development message to the rest of the world.

That was one of the lessons that the annual LINK delegation of Atlanta business, government and civic leaders found out in 2013 when they traveled to the Greater Houston area. And when the LINK delegation travels to Philadelphia from May 7 to May 10, the same lesson is likely to be reinforced.

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Crucial moment ahead for Morris Brown campus

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By Maria Saporta and Douglas Sams
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 25, 2014

A 37-acre tract of land controlled by Morris Brown College is reaching a pivotal point.

Bids for the historic Atlanta campus are due April 30, according to documents filed in federal bankruptcy court. Those proposals could determine who will own that property, how the land will be redeveloped and what the future holds for Morris Brown College, which lost its accreditation in 2002.

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Column: Patriots Dinner in June will honor wounded warriors

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

The black-tie dinner will be held at the Georgia Aquarium, and it will include U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson as well as Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

In addition to the Medal of Honor recipients, other special guests will include Bernie Marcus, a philanthropist who contributed the Georgia Aquarium and was co-founder of The Home Depot Inc.; and Alana Shepherd, co-founder of the Shepherd Center. Music will be provided by Grammy winner Earl Klugh.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Aaron’s aims to decide its own destiny

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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.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Atlanta’s quest to be a global city reaches a new level with focus on immigration and a new soccer team

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Each decade has brought a new international flavor to Atlanta.

Now we are entering another significant phase that will be marked with a new Major League Soccer team in 2017 as well as a concerted effort by the Atlanta business community and City Hall to be a welcoming city.

Atlanta’s quest to become the world’s next great city really began to take off in the 1970s. Eastern Airlines began flying to Montego Bay and Mexico out of Atlanta on July 1, 1971; and Sabena Belgian World Airlines became Atlanta’s first foreign carrier with flights to Brussels beginning on June 1, 1978.

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Column: Atlanta Ballet on firm footing, has record ticket sales

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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.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Chris Leinberger: Atlanta region ‘absolutely needs rail transit;’ question is will you lead or be a laggard?

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How can Atlanta be both a “poster child of sprawl” and a burgeoning example of “walkable urban places” – creating a metro area with compact town centers?

That was the question Chris Leinberger, a real estate executive and urbanist who specializes in market trends, decided to ask himself during a “Creative Changemakers” talk at Serenbe on April 11.

It was an appropriate topic for Leinberger because he, as much as anyone, is responsible for labeling Atlanta a poster child of sprawl. Now Leinberger is leading the back-pedaling movement — armed with facts and figures — letting both local and national developers know that the sprawl pendulum is swinging the other way.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: John Williams says Cobb school board ‘kicked’ him ‘in the ass’

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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.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Top Georgia CEOs hope to stop social legislation that hurts business

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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.

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Lindsay Street Park a model of what needs to happen along Proctor Creek

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After decades of being ignored and abused, Proctor Creek’s time has finally arrived.

Proctor Creek begins downtown in the concrete jungle located around the railroad gulch and the Georgia Dome. Like all good headwaters of creeks, it only comes alive during major storms, and even then the runoff often finds it way to the low spots of the Vine City neighborhood.

The Proctor Creek disappears into tunnels off and on during its journey to the Chattahoochee River — becoming a vital part of our city’s water system.

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Column: Snow days delay Civil Rights Center opening a couple of weeks

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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.

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Civic leaders come up with a development agenda for Atlanta — what would yours be?

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MARTA galvanized the vision of dozens of developers and civic leaders who want to dedicate their energies on a handful of Atlanta projects in the upcoming year.

The Urban Land Institute’s Livable Communities Council spent all of March 26 at the Ritz Carlton Atlanta working on ideas on where they could have the greatest impact on the future development of Atlanta.

This is the first time that the reconfigured group has gotten together since the Livable Communities Coalition merged with the Urban Land Institute. Developer David Allman helped orchestrate that merger, and Mark Toro, managing partner of North American Properties, is the new LCC chair.

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Let’s salute Maynard Jackson – 40 years after becoming Atlanta’s mayor – helping integrate city’s economy

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If Maynard Jackson were still living, he would have celebrated his 76th birthday on Sunday.

Yet, even in death, the larger-than-life former mayor of Atlanta was honored at a special celebration Saturday night at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis to mark the 40th anniversary of becoming the city’s first African-American mayor at only 35 years old.

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