By Maria Saporta
The Nature Conservancy is adding another 1,117 acres under its protection along the Altamaha River.
The property is known as the Morgan Lake tract near Jesup in Long County, Ga.
With the addition of the Morgan Lake property, the Nature Conservancy and many of its public and private partners have protected more than 140,000 acres in the Altamaha River basin.
The Morgan Lake tract is strategically located between several sensitive wildlife areas.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 23, 2014
The Atlanta History Center is about to reshape its own history.
After reaching its largest-ever capital campaign goal of $21.1 million, the Atlanta History Center will begin construction on an extensive renovation of its campus, including its signature building that houses the major exhibit space and the ballroom.
By Maria Saporta
Amid tears, hugs and laughs, members of the Friendship Baptist Church congregation said good-bye to their historic home on Sunday during a service that celebrated their legacy while they vowed for an even stronger future.
As people came to the church Sunday morning, they could not ignore the change that was taking place. Just a few weeks ago, their neighbor — Mt. Vernon Baptist Church — stood across Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
By Maria Saporta
After years of broken deals and false starts, Morris Brown College and its creditors have agreed to an offer to sell most of its 36-acre property to the City of Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church for $14.6 million.
That is about $2 million more than what the city and Friendship previously had reported that they were offering Morris Brown as one of several bids for the property.
Morris Brown College filed for bankruptcy in August, 2012 with about $30 million in debt.
By Maria Saporta
For Friendship Baptist Church, Sunday will be its last service in the historic home of worship where it has been rooted since 1871.
The church will be demolished in the next several months and eventually replaced by the new $1.2 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium that is scheduled to open in 2017.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 16, 2014
The Woodruff Arts Center has named Paul Garcia, chairman of Global Payments Inc., to step in as its 2014-2015 campaign chairman.
Last October, the Center announced that Steve Cahilane, then president of Coca-Cola Americas, was going to be heading up that annual campaign.
By Maria Saporta
The business relationship between the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Atlanta Chamber began a healing process Thursday when Hala Moddelmog was invited to speak at the 1818 Club on Satellite Boulevard.
The healing is being made possible because there is now new leadership in place at both organizations, leadership that does not have a history of competition and a struggle for power.
By Maria Saporta
Dazzling the crowd. That was what the designers of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium hoped would happen when fans came to the “iconic” attraction when it opens in 2017.
Well if the ground-breaking is any indication, they are off to a good start.
By Maria Saporta
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) made a passionate case for American involvement in foreign affairs — particularly in Africa — at the opening of Monday’s 3rd Annual Atlanta Summit: Health in Africa – the Unfinished Agenda.
Isakson has attended every one of the summits that bring together Atlanta’s multiple global health organizations and the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
They include CARE, the World Affairs Council, GSU, CDC Foundation, Coca-Cola, UPS, AGCO and GE working with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic & International Studies.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 16, 2014
PHILADELPHIA – A delegation of 111 metro Atlanta leaders, who just returned from a study mission to Philadelphia, learned how Drexel University hopes to bridge its campus with its surrounding community by building over rail yards near the 30th Street Amtrak train station.
By Maria Saporta
Rome-based Berry College celebrated the public launch of an ambitious $100 million fundraising campaign Saturday night at a special dinner in Atlanta.
At the dinner held at the St. Regis, Berry College President Steve Briggs announced that $70 million in commitments already have been made towards the “LifeReady: The Berry College Campaign for Opportunity.”
One of the campaign’s co-chairs is Barry Griswell, a winner of the Horatio Alger award, who grew up poor with a single mom. Griswell’s inspiring story of how he is now co-chairing his alma mater’s $100 million campaign is an example of the impact that Berry College can have.
By Maria Saporta
Three years, three summits.
On Monday, Atlanta will hold the third annual global health summit — this year focusing on: “Health in Africa: the Unfinished Agenda.”
For the third year in a row, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) will be a keynote speaker at the summit — which will bring together many of the global health partners in philanthropy, government and business to focus on issues where mainly Atlanta-based organizations can work together to address some of the world’s most pressing problems.
“Each year I think they’ve gotten stronger and stronger as more people inside and outside of Atlanta hear about it,” said Helene Gayle, president and CEO of Atlanta-based CARE. “For me it’s been really gratifying to see how it’s brought different sectors in Atlanta together.”
By Maria Saporta
The prestigious 2014 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will go to Beatrice Mtetwa, a human rights attorney from Zimbabwe, Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson announced Thursday.
Mtetwa is the first woman and the first non-Georgian to receive the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize – named in honor of the city’s enlightened mayor during the 1960s – which comes with a $100,000 cash award.
She will receive the prize and be honored during a ceremony at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts scheduled for Nov. 13.
Mtetwa has fought against injustice and defended press freedom for more than 20 years. She has endured harassment and arrest as she has advocated for human rights, social justice and women’s equality and advancement.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 9, 2014
The Council for Quality Growth has tapped real estate businessman Steve Selig as the recipient of the 2014 Four Pillar Award.
The award is one of the most prestigious annual recognitions given to leaders who have had a major impact on the Atlanta region – from Tom Cousins to Arthur Blank to Shirley Franklin to Johnny Isakson to John Portman.
“It reads like a Who’s Who. These are all people I’ve looked up to and learned from,” Selig said in an interview from his company’s offices on Spring Street. “It’s overwhelming.”
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Chamber Players performed to a sold-out audience Tuesday evening at the New American Shakespeare Tavern — people turning out because they knew it was going to be an extraordinary night.
“What a special night it is,” said Paula Peace as she took the stage before dedicating the night’s concert to Douglas Sommer, a bass player with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra who had been scheduled to play that night with the ensemble but lost his battle to cancer on Feb. 27 at the young age of 54.
And while the concert was dedicated to Sommer, the night belonged to Paula Peace — the founding pianist and artistic director of the Atlanta Chambers — who was performing at her last concert in that role.
By Maria Saporta
PHILADELPHIA – A ball of energy known as Jane Golden captivated the metro Atlanta LINK delegation during its three-day trip to the Pennsylvania city.
Golden’s underlying message was to show how the arts can help address an urban area’s most intractable problems and bring creative energy to a city’s streets, its walls and its heart.
In 1984, Golden went to work for Philadelphia’s newly launched Anti-Graffiti Network. Like many anti-graffiti efforts, the city would paint over the graffit, and within a few days, new graffiti would appear.
By Maria Saporta
PHILADELPHIA – The City of Philadelphia’s population peaked in the 1950s when it hit 2 million people, but as the suburbs developed and the central city deteriorated, the city’s population dropped to below 1.5 million people.
“Then in 2007-2008, we started to see that the population loss had sort of stopped and had moved back up,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told the metro Atlanta LINK delegation of about 110 leaders visiting in his city for three days this week. “The millennial population was our largest percentage increase.”
Much of Philadelphia’s growth today, incremental as it may be, is directly tied to its 101 colleges and universities, including its five medical schools. Repeatedly, leaders in Philadelphia spoke about how its economy was being driven by “eds and meds” — education and the medical industry.
PHILADELPHIA – Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told members of the metro Atlanta LINK delegation Wednesday night that “first and foremost you have to act as a region.”
Rendell went on to say: “If they are going to hear you at the state capitol, the city and the suburbs have to act as one; you have to care as one.”
Before serving as governor, Rendell was mayor of the City of Philadelphia, which has a population of 1.6 million people in a region of 6 million.
But what the LINK delegation had heard earlier in the day is that Philadelphia – much like Atlanta – often has problems thinking and acting like a region.
The greater Philadelphia area actually includes three states (meaning having to work with three governors and three state legislatures) as well as 350 local governments, according to Barry Seymour, executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission – the equivalent of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
By Maria Saporta
Pope & Land Enterprises confirmed Wednesday that it also has submitted a proposal to buy the 37 acres of land owned by Morris Brown College just west of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium.
“The bid was contingent upon working out an agreement to keep Morris Brown operating on a portion of the property,” said Mason Zimmerman, a senior vice president of Pope & Land Enterprises, while on the metro Atlanta LINK delegation trip to Philadelphia.
Pope & Land’s offer is the second known team bidding for the property. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed disclosed last week that the City of Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church had team up to make a $12.6 million offer to buy most of the property. Reed said the city-Friendship team’s offer was for the 37 acres “exclusive of the four or five academic buildings where Morris Brown could continue to operate.”
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 2, 2014
United Way of Greater Atlanta enjoyed its second consecutive increase in its fundraising campaign, announcing April 29 that its 2013 campaign raised $74.15 million.
Milton Little, United Way’s president and CEO, said it also was the third increase in four years, which was an indicator that the Atlanta economy had stabilized.
“We celebrate our success but we don’t take it for granted,” Little said. “The reality for all of us in this fundraising world is that the challenges still persist. But the worst direct impact of the recession is behind us.”
