Category: Sections

By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 3, 2011

Broadcast television is alive and well.

That was the theme at the annual meeting of Atlanta-based Gray Television Inc. held on June 1.

“It has been pretty much of a roller coaster ride with the economy,” said Robert Prather, president and chief operating officer of Gray Television. “2009 was the worst year ever for the broadcast television industry. But 2010 turned out to be the best year in our history. And 2011 has started out better than many of us expected.”

By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 03, 2011

Atlanta has for years taken great pride in being a top five city for Fortune 500 headquarters.

In fact this year, Fortune magazine proclaimed Atlanta was tied for third (up from fourth) with Dallas, with each city having 10 Fortune 500 company headquarters. The Fortune 500 issue was published May 23.
But Fortune’s list is flawed.

Atlanta’s true rank actually is several notches lower, according to a review by Atlanta Business Chronicle of different communities with large clusters of Fortune 500 headquarters.

By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 27, 2011

The Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America is celebrating the news that it has reached its $15 million capital campaign goal.

The “When Tradition Meets Tomorrow” campaign is being invested in building new facilities at the Bert Adams Scout Reservation near Covington and to make improvements at the Woodruff Scout Reservation and Allatoona Aquatics Base.

The campaign was chaired by Gary Fayard, executive vice president and chief financial officer for The Coca-Cola Co. Steve Sitton, president of the Atlanta Area Council and president of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets for the Southeast region, also helped get the campaign to reach its goal.

By Maria Saporta and Lisa R. Schoolcraft
Friday, May 27, 2011

The National Center for Civil & Human Rights is closing in on its fundraising goal — which would allow it to break ground this fall and open in October 2013 — giving Atlanta a “signature” destination to match its civil rights legacy.

The center’s leaders have raised $75.5 million in donations and pledges for the attraction, which will be located on the same block as the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola on land donated by the soft drink company.

Another $9.5 million still needs to be raised before construction can begin. That will cover the $85 million building costs and permit the center to open without debt.

By Lisa R. Schoolcraft and Maria Saporta
Friday, May 27, 2011

The College Football Hall of Fame plans to open bigger, and later, than first expected.

But leaders say the extra time will allow them to raise the rest of the funds for the $82 million project and open debt-free in September 2013. That would be six months later than originally projected, and just prior to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff football game in Atlanta.

The Hall of Fame, which is relocating from South Bend, Ind., is planned for downtown Atlanta in what is now the Green parking lot of the Georgia World Congress Center, near Marietta and Baker streets.

The project is now planned for 75,000 square feet, 50 percent larger than the original 50,000-square-foot concept. It will include a 3-D theater, interactive displays of college football greats, have an event space designed as a football field, and house the National Football Foundation’s Hall of Fame displays.

By Maria Saporta and Doug Sams
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Georgia State University is trying to acquire the Equitable building, one of the most familiar office towers on the downtown Atlanta skyline.

In an e-mail today to faculty and staff, J. Mack Robinson College of Business Dean H. Fenwick Huss said, “an opportunity has arisen whereby the college may be able to move our offices much closer to the location of the anticipated Academic Building.”

Huss also said if the purchase of Equitable is successful, “We expect space in Equitable would be available for [college of business] administrative and faculty offices within two years.”

The university is a major player in downtown Atlanta real estate.

In 2007, the Georgia State University Foundation purchased the SunTrust building; a two-block area that includes the 26-story office tower at 25 Park Place; a three-story bank building; a six-story annex building; a four-story vacant building and an eight-story parking deck.

By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 20, 2011

The city of Atlanta will open a Center for Women Entrepreneurship in the former home of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at 72 Marietta St. N.W. downtown, Mayor Kasim Reed announced at the “CEO Luncheon” of the Atlanta Business League on May 17.

Reed was named the 2011 CEO of the Year by the 78-year-old organization that promotes economic opportunity for Atlanta’s African-American businesses.

Reed said the idea behind the Center for Women Entrepreneurship is a “very simple” one.

By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 20, 2011

After seeing its budget slashed during the last legislative session, the Georgia Research Alliance appears to be regaining favor among state leaders.

The board of the Georgia Research Alliance passed a resolution May 12 to support the integration of Georgia Centers of Innovation with the Georgia Research Alliance. The Centers of Innovation were launched in 2003 by the state to provide technological support to businesses and startups.

Currently, there are six Centers of Innovation in the fields of aerospace, logistics, agribusiness, energy, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.

“The centers were envisioned as being a bridge between these industry clusters and the universities,” said Mike Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance.

By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 20, 2011

The Atlanta Press Club, which is launching a Hall of Fame for renowned journalists and media professionals, is announcing its first class of inductees.

The 2011 Hall of Fame inductees will be:

• Ted Turner, the media titan who is best known as the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.

• Furman Bisher, the noted sportswriter, editor and author who began his career in 1938 and joined The Atlanta Constitution in 1950.

• Tom Johnson, president of CNN in the 1990s and former publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

• John Pruitt, longtime anchor of Channel 2 Action News on WSB-TV and 11Alive News on WXIA-TV, who retired at the end of 2010.

• Alexis Scott and the Scott family, publishers of the Atlanta Daily World, the city’s respected and pioneering African-American newspaper founded in 1928.

• Henry Grady (1850-1889), the legendary editor of The Atlanta Constitution (the inaugural posthumous award).