Original Story on WABE by Maria Saporta The $192.5 million renovation plan for Philips Arena could also include upgrades to land between Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Underground Atlanta and Centennial Olympic Park. According to this week’s Atlanta Business Chronicle, that includes what some call the “gulch.” The gulch is the property under the Georgia World Congress Center […]
Category: Contributors
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Column: Achieve Atlanta gets $600,000 boost from Kaiser Permanente
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Oct. 28, 2016
Achieve Atlanta, a nonprofit helping graduating high school seniors attend and stay in college, has received an unsolicited three-year grant of $600,000 from Kaiser Permanente of Georgia.
The grant will enable Achieve Atlanta to add a college counselor in four high schools in distressed areas of Atlanta to help students apply and pay for college.
“We really wanted to focus on areas where there were poor health outcomes,” said Madelyn Adams, director of community benefit for Kaiser Permanente of Georgia. “Better education leads to better health outcomes. Achieve Atlanta was the right place for us to be. I really admire how transparent they are and how they know where they want to go. It really appealed to us.”
Posted inLatest News
Woodruff Arts Center raises $110 million; Alliance Theatre to rename its main stage after Coca-Cola
Raising more than $10 million over its goal, the Woodruff Arts Center’s Transformation Campaign ended up raising $110 million more than two years ahead of schedule.
The record-breaking campaign ended up receiving a multimillion dollar undisclosed gift from the Coca-Cola Co. to support the renovation of the Alliance Theatre. As a result, the main stage will be named the Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theatre when the renovated venue opens in the fall of 2018.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Business leaders launch Atlanta Friendship Initiative
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Oct. 28, 2016
Two top Atlanta business leaders have launched a new initiative aimed at healing strained race relations, with hopes it could spread to other cities.
Bill Nordmark, an Atlanta business consultant and former president of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, and John Grant, executive director of the Celebration Bowl and former CEO of 100 Black Men of Atlanta, have formed the Atlanta Friendship Initiative. The concept is to pair up two people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds and have them become friends. They agree to get together once a quarter, and then once a year to bring their families together in fellowship.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta Hawks reach agreement with the city on a $192.5 million renovation of Philips Arena
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and majority Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler were all smiles Tuesday when they announced that they had reached a $192.5 million deal to revamp Philips Arena.
The 30-year agreement would keep the “Hawks in downtown Atlanta for decades to come,” Reed said at the press conference in his Ceremonial Office at City Hall.
Posted inLatest News
George Dusenbury named head of Trust for Public Land – Georgia
Veteran parks and conservation advocate George Dusenbury IV has been named the Georgia State Director for the Trust for Public Land.
He succeeds Curt Soper, who moved to the Pacific Northwest this summer to accept a position as executive director of the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust.
In his new role, Dusenbury plans to focus on improving access to parks in Atlanta, expanding conservation efforts around the Chattahoochee River and working in partnership with individuals and organizations throughout the state.
Posted inWABE
Commentary: Building material recycling center helps region
Original Story on WABE by Maria Saporta Back when he was working at the Southface Energy Institute in the mid-2000s, Adam Deck came up with the idea of creating a nonprofit that would recycle building materials, keeping them out of landfills. He started working on a business plan, but had a hard time getting traction. […]
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Transportation continues to serve as top concern for metro Atlanta residents
For the third year in a row, transportation continues to be the top concern in the Atlanta region – mentioned by 25 percent of the population.
The results of the fourth annual Metro Atlanta Speaks public opinion survey were to be announced at the Atlanta Regional Commission’s State of the Region breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center.
More importantly, the respondents expressed strong support for public transit with 73.5 percent said transit was very important and another 18.7 percent said it was somewhat important.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Column: How a chance meeting at a bar helped a nonprofit buy a home
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Oct. 21, 2016
The Lifecycle Building Center has just been able to acquire its 70,000-square-foot warehouse with 3.5 acres — thanks to the Kendeda Fund’s help in facilitating an acquisition loan.
The property includes a historic warehouse and a newer building at 1116 Murphy Ave. in southwest Atlanta — a location the nonprofit has been leasing for five years. The warehouses are filled with construction materials, from cabinets to doors to sinks to anything one can find in homes or office buildings.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Atlanta-based Purpose Built Communities helps transform Birmingham neighborhood
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Oct. 21, 2016
Mike and Gillian Goodrich beamed with pride on Oct. 17 as more than 400 people from around the country toured the formerly distressed Birmingham, Ala., community of Woodlawn — looking at how the neighborhood was being transformed.
The out-of-town guests were attending the seventh annual conference of Atlanta-based nonprofit Purpose Built Communities— formed in 2009 by developer Tom Cousins as a way to replicate in disadvantaged neighborhoods across the country the revitalization model that successfully turned around Atlanta’s once-troubled East Lake Community.
Posted inWABE
Commentary: Cartooning for peace integral to free speech
As part of France-Atlanta, an exhibition and program is being presented called “Cartooning for Peace: The of Art of Democracy.” Three world-renowned press cartoonists participated in the program – Jean “Plantu” Plantureux with Le Monde, France, Michel Kichka with Courrier International who is based in Israel, and our own Mike Luckovich with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Column: Food Bank names new COO to implement 10-year strategic plan
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Oct. 14, 2016
The Atlanta Community Food Bank has named Stacey Greene-Koehnke as its new chief operations officer.
Greene-Koehnke, who will begin her position on Oct. 24, will help the ACFB implement its ambitious 10-year strategic plan to provide 130 million meals per year by 2025, an increase of 130 percent. That includes 50 million pounds of fresh produce a year.
Posted inLatest News
Final beams for Mercedes-Benz Stadium being put in place
Standing in the bowl of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it feels as if you’re in the middle of an erector set – a giant erector set.
The event on Wednesday was seeing workers sign one of the final steel beams to be placed on the top of the fixed portion of the roof. The beam then was lifted up through the middle of the stadium to its final resting spot.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Column: Inaugural Atlanta event to aid families who lost loved one in combat
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Oct. 7, 2016
When one meets Stephen Cannon, the CEO of the AMB Group LLC, it doesn’t take long to learn he was a graduate of West Point. It is obvious in the way he carries himself and the way he approaches life.
So it is no surprise that Cannon and his 1986 classmates from West Point have found a way to give back.
Posted inLatest News
Metro Atlanta Chamber hosts reception to say farewell to its building
The Metro Atlanta Chamber invited current and former board and staff members to say good-bye to its headquarters building as well as its roof-top pavilion.
The Atlanta Chamber has sold its building to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which plans to demolish the building across Marietta Street in order to expand Centennial Olympic Park.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Column: Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola and Atlanta give $7.5 million to City of Refuge for job training
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Sept. 30, 2016
The City of Refuge, a 20-year-old nonprofit serving Atlanta’s Westside, will expand its vocational training and entrepreneurial services through $7.5 million in donations from The Chick-fil-A Foundation, The Coca-Cola Foundation and Atlanta.
The donations were announced Wednesday at a press conference at the City of Refuge with The Coca-Cola Co. CEO Muhtar Kent, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Chick-fil-A Inc. CEO Dan Cathy and City of Refuge founder Bruce Deel.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle
Atlanta Police Foundation kicks off west Atlanta safety initiatives
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Sept. 30, 2016
The Atlanta Police Foundation, in partnership with several public and private entities, will be playing a major role in improving the lives of people living in the west side Atlanta communities.
The foundation has a multi-pronged effort underway in the communities of Vine City and English Avenue to address many of the public safety and community policing issues affecting the area.
Posted inLatest News
Morehouse President John Wilson receives support from his board
The board of trustees of Morehouse College announced Saturday night that President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. (Class of 1979) continues to have its full support.
The trustees had just held a two-day meeting, and they had to make a decision about Wilson’s contract, which was up for renewal.
Posted inLatest News
Martha Looney, 98, is dancing in heaven
Martha Looney asked to be buried in red stiletto heels.
It may seem odd that someone who had suffered from the effects of polio since 1949 would want to be buried in shoes that she could not wear in life.
“I want to dance in heaven,” she told her only child – daughter Sylvia Looney Dick.
Posted inWABE
Commentary: Fernbank Museum vision realized with expansion
Original Story on WABE by Maria Saporta – (Audio file not available) The Fernbank Museum of Natural History opened in October 1992 as a place where people could learn about their natural environment. On Sept. 24, the museum opened its doors with a $21.7 million expansion spotlighting the natural environment outside of the building. The […]
