Category: Columns

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