Category: ATL Business Chronicle

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 8, 2016

For 25 years, the PATH Foundation has been building multi-use trails wherever it could around Atlanta — segment by segment.

Now PATH is in the midst of a $15.8 million campaign to help connect the various segments so that metro Atlanta will eventually have a regional network of trails.

The James M. Cox Foundation has contributed $6 million to the campaign, The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation awarded PATH $4 million, and The Coca-Cola Foundation has contributed $500,000.

By Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 8, 2016

The developer planning to buy and remake Underground Atlanta has contracts to buy more than a dozen additional buildings in south downtown that have sat blighted for years.

Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based developer WRS Inc. has under contract about 14 buildings along Peachtree Street that sit south of Underground.

Those properties, such as the Metro Mall at 73 Peachtree St., include a collection of row-style buildings totaling about 240,000 square feet that once made up the heart of downtown Atlanta’s retail district.

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 1, 2016

Although Atlanta was not selected to be General Electric’s future corporate headquarters, the process did lead to GE increasing its investment in the city.

On June 27, the company announced that it will locate the North American headquarters of GE’s Digital Operations in Atlanta – initially bringing 250 jobs to the Midtown area.

It reaffirms the comments Chris Carr, Georgia’s commissioner of economic development, made last December after the state found out it had been cut as a candidate for GE’s corporate headquarters.

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 1, 2016

Developers of the Doraville Assembly project are putting together a financing alternative so the redevelopment of the 165-acre former General Motors plant can regain momentum.

“Plan B” would include a combination of government grants and loans as well as the creation of the Assembly Community Improvement District, which has already been approved by the City of Doraville.

Atlanta Business Chronicle reported April 15 that time is running out for the initial plan for the project due to a disagreement between the city of Doraville, DeKalb County officials and DeKalb School Superintendent Stephen Green, who has refused to allow the system to take part in the funding the project through a tax allocation district (TAD).

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 24, 2016

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta is on a mission. It intends to have $1.6 billion in assets by the end of 2018 — nearly doubling the $950 million it had at the end of 2015.

Alicia Philipp, the organization’s CEO, is convinced that goal can be reached. Already the Foundation receives about $100 million in new philanthropic funds every year from individuals, foundations and estates.

“That is absolutely awesome,” Philipp said. “But the potential is so much more from this community. We need to more actively and proactively promote philanthropy in Atlanta.”

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 17, 2016

Egbert Perry couldn’t be more proud of the three new people who have been elected to Fannie Mae’s board — describing them as part of the organization’s new leadership.

Perry, who is board chairman of Fannie Mae and also CEO of Atlanta-based commercial real estate developer Integral Group, described the three leaders as “seasoned executives.”

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 17, 2016

After years of stops and starts, plans are moving forward to build a new park — one that will be bigger than Centennial Olympic Park — in the heart of Vine City, just west of the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

By Maria Saporta As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 10, 2016 The sixth annual Clinton Global Initiative America will be held in Atlanta June 12 to 14, bringing together national leaders in business, philanthropy, government and nonprofits. A highlight of this year’s meeting will be a special one-on-one conversation between two former […]

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 10, 2016

The Atlanta region likes to boast of being a hub of Fortune 500 company headquarters – bragging that it has the third-highest concentration in the country – an assertion included in the video shown in the city’s presentation that helped it recently win the 2019 Super Bowl.

But that’s an overstatement at best.

In fact, Atlanta’s high watermark as a Fortune 500 company region may have come in 2015 when there were 18 companies in the prestigious list.

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 3, 2016

When Jenny Pruitt got the call saying she had been selected as the 2016 Four Pillar honoree by the Council for Quality Growth, her first reaction was they had called the wrong person.

“I’m humbled and excited,” Pruitt said of the honor, which will be presented on Oct. 13 at the 27th annual Four Pillar Tribute at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Pruitt, a third-generation Atlantan, is the only the third woman to make the esteemed list (Gwinnett County’s Louise Radloff received it in 2000, and Atlanta’s Shirley Franklin received it in 2009.

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 3, 2016

When Mike Thurmond won the Democratic primary election on May 24 for CEO of DeKalb County with 72 percent of the vote against two opponents, he drew support from all parts of the county.

That’s how he can conclude a 90-minute exclusive interview with Atlanta Business Chronicle that focused on some of the most contentious issues dividing DeKalb with an expression of hope.

“I’m so excited and optimistic about the future of DeKalb County,” Thurmond said. “We will be recognized as a national model of local governance. We are going to figure it out. We are the land of opportunity in the metro area.”

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 27, 2016

State business leaders are being asked to join the Chairman’s Circle of Youth Entrepreneurs Georgia – a nonprofit started by Elizabeth Koch in 2006.

Liz Koch is the wife of billionaire Charles Koch, an owner of Koch Industries, which bought Georgia-Pacific in 2005.

The Chairman’s Circle was launched May 19 at a reception at the Center for Civil and Human Rights. The goal of YE Georgia is to make entrepreneurship an educational priority for public schools. So far, YE Georgia operates in public schools in Atlanta, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett. “We’re in 13 schools, and we are serving 360 students,” Mrs. Koch said at the reception. It started in two Atlanta schools serving only 38 students. Since it started, YE Georgia has reached about 2,000 students.

By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 27, 2016

For Arthur Blank, securing the 2019 Super Bowl was a culmination of a dream that began when he announced he was buying the Atlanta Falcons in December 2001 — nearly two years after the city hosted its last Super Bowl.

“It’s amazing from where Atlanta has come in the last 16 years,” Blank said in an interview in Charlotte, N.C., on May 24 after the 32 owners of the National Football League awarded the 2019 Super Bowl to Atlanta. “My heart is touched by a lot of people. My motivation comes from what we can do for others, in making people happy and seeing the gleam in their eyes.”

It’s been a long and winding road since that day – full of emotional ups and downs as he has had to deal with the daily angst of running a professional sports team.

By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 20, 2016

The Woodruff Arts Center has tapped Martin Flanagan, president and CEO of Invesco Ltd., to chair its annual corporate campaign for 2016-2017.

The annual corporate campaign has raised more than $10 million to support all the arts and education programming of the Woodruff Arts Center and its divisions: the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art and the Alliance Theatre.

“We are thrilled that Marty has agreed to chair our 2016 – 17 Annual Corporate Campaign,” said Doug Hertz, board chairman of the Woodruff Arts Center. “Marty and Invesco have been tremendous supporters of the Arts Center for years. Now he is doing even more by continuing the tradition of Atlanta’s most respected CEOs leading our annual corporate campaign.”

By Doug Sams and Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 20, 2016

Nearly a year after the city of Atlanta announced an agreement to redevelop Underground Atlanta and almost eight months after plans emerged to transform the Atlanta Civic Center, neither deal has closed — and cranes for the intown projects are nowhere in sight.

The delays come as the country enters a period of uncertainty surrounding the presidential election, and the real estate cycle — which has flooded Atlanta with new investment and dotted its central skyline and intown neighborhoods with apartment buildings — may be peaking.

Recently, the outlook for the nearly $300 million Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center redevelopment took an unexpected turn when Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told a reporter “the deal is a little shaky. It’s taken longer than I had hoped it would.”