Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

Renee Glover, the nationally-acclaimed CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, is leaving her post after a three-year political struggle with City Hall.

The AHA board on Tuesday accepted Glover’s resignation, and a release announcing the move said she had “done an outstanding job over the past 19 years and the entire board wishes her will in her future endeavors.”

The resignation was effective immediately, but Glover has agreed to be available to assist AHA during a 90-day transition period, which is supposed to end Nov. 30, 2013.

By Maria Saporta

The founder and executive director of Southface — Dennis Creech — is receiving a prestigious award for his contributions to environmentally-friendly housing.

Creech is the 2013 winner of the Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing — an award that comes with a $50,000 prize.

The award is considered to be the industry’s premier award that recognizes achievements in environmental building, and it is sponsored by the Hanley Foundation, Hanley Wood and ECOHOME and BUILDER magazines.

By Maria Saporta

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The leaders who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Wednesday delivered a similar theme — we’ve come a long way in the past 50 years, but we still have a long way to go.

And so many of the leaders delivering that message were our own homegrown Atlantans — people who helped shape and build the Civil Rights movement 50 years ago and those who now have been given the mantle of leadership to continue the fight for economic and racial justice in today’s disparate environment.

The role that Atlanta’s leaders have played and continue to play is undeniable.

By Maria Saporta

Just hours after qualifying for re-election, Mayor Kasim Reed delivered an upbeat talk to the Rotary Club of Atlanta saying the city was reclaiming its place as the capital of the Southeast.

Reed acknowledged that Atlanta had been particularly hard hit during the Great Recession, because of the city’s reliance on development and construction industries — two sectors that were particularly hard hit in the past few years.

“We are going to become one of the most successful cities in the United States, and we have reasserted our dominance in the Southeast,” Reed said. “You haven’t heard much about Charlotte recently, have you?”

By Maria Saporta

A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday afternoon gave Morris Brown College until Sept. 6 to file a new financial plan to restructure all of its debts.

That plan is expected to involve the property where the College has had operations along both sides of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just a few short blocks west of Northside Drive.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro also gave Morris Brown the right to borrow $300,000 from the African Methodist Episcopal Church — a move that will keep the College open at least through Sept. 16.

The AME Church had offered Morris Brown a $1.5 million loan that would help the college pay some of its post-bankruptcy interest payments as well as administrative expenses through the end of the year. But Ellis-Monro on Monday only allowed the College to borrow $300,000 of that new loan.

By Maria Saporta

The legal proceedings of Morris Brown College’s bankruptcy will resume Monday in the courtroom of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro.

According to legal filings submitted to the court last week, Morris Brown will be seeking to stay open for the foreseeable future thanks to a new $1.5 million loan that the African Methodist Episcopal Church is willing to provide.

Morris Brown College filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2012 to prevent going into foreclosure due to being an estimated $30 million in debt to multiple creditors.

Since then, Morris Brown has been trying to put together various financial plans to wipe away its debt and to be able to stay open.

By Maria Saporta

Newly-installed U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, after visiting with several local executives and entrepreneurs, said Atlanta had a “vibrant ecosystem” with a “great sense of optimism.”

Pritzer was in Atlanta as part of her first 100-day nationwide listening tour to engage with business, academic and thought leaders to hear concerns and ideas on how the public and private sectors can work together to strengthen the economy.

While in Atlanta, Pritzker had dinner Thursday night with Mayor Kasim Reed, when they discussed business opportunities in the city as well as plans to build a new stadium for the Atanta Falcons.

By Maria Saporta

It’s in the Atlanta air.

As the calendar nears Aug. 28, the anticipation is growing the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington — the day that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his powerful “I Have A Dream” speech on the National Mall.

On Thursday, WXIA-TV invited key Atlanta dignitaries to preview a special documentary “Share the Journey” to showcase the march, the speech and other world-changing events that occurred in 1963.

By Maria Saporta

The business community will need to take a leadership role for true immigration reform to occur during the next six months.

That was the sentiment that former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour shared Monday with the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

Both statesmen are co-chairing the Immigration Task Force of the Bipartisan Policy Center — urging the U.S. Congress to take action on meaningful immigration reform for the good of domestic economy.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed held a press briefing late Friday afternoon to announce that Mount Vernon Baptist Church would sell its property for $15.5 million instead of the $20.3 million that it has been asking.

The Georgia World Congress Center has said that the most it could offer, because of state law regarding the acquisition of property, is $6.2 million.

Mount Vernon is one of two churches that would need to be acquired for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium to be built on the site south of the Georgia Dome.

By Maria Saporta

Georgia and Atlanta leaders welcomed what they hope will be their next Fortune 500 company headquarters to Atlanta Thursday morning.

Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed welcomed Richard Dugas Jr., the chairman, president and CEO of PulteGroup, to Atlanta at the location of its new headquarters a year from now.

PulteGroup is moving its corporate headquarters from Bloomfield Hills, Mi. in the Detroit area to the Capital City Plaza building right next to the MARTA Buckhead station.

The PulteGroup’s ranking in the 2013 Fortune 1000 list? No. 501. Oh so close.

By Maria Saporta

Even Bill Shipp was amazed by the folks who showed up for his 80th birthday party at Vinings Bank on Tuesday.

There were former governors — Carl Sanders, Zell Miller, Joe Frank Harris and Roy Barnes. There was former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, and current Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.

There were university presidents — Dan Papp of Kennesaw State, and former presidents — Betty Siegel, also of Kennesaw. There was former UGA football coach Vince Dooley. DeKalb Schools chief Michael Thurmond. There were bank CEOs — Kessel Stelling of Synovus as well as executives from Vinings Bank.

By Maria Saporta

Mount Vernon Baptist Church received the support of two Atlanta mayors Tuesday night as it weighs its option on whether to make way for a new Falcons stadium.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young met with Rev. Rodney K. Turner and members of his congregation to talk about the status of negotiations with the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.

“We are all committed to continuing the ministry of this church in this community,” Young said after the meeting. “The mayor (Reed) made a commitment to work with them to continue their ministry at an improved site and circumstances.”

By Maria Saporta

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has been in his job for less than 40 days, and it’s no accident that one of his first stops in his new role was a trip to Atlanta on Monday.

Foxx, the former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., was a keynote speaker at the 2013 Legislative Summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures at the Georgia World Congress Center Monday morning.

But Foxx then went to a private “roundtable” meeting at the Metro Atlanta Chamber with 33 business, civic and transportation leaders from metro Atlanta and Georgia. The meeting lasted for more than an hour.

By Maria Saporta

The decision to build a new football stadium on the north or south site is heading down parallel tracks this week.

The Georgia World Congress Center and the City of Atlanta will be meeting to talk about the situation with Mount Vernon Baptist Church, which would have to be acquired for the stadium to be built on the south site.

The state and the church, according to the latest reported offers, are $14 million apart. The state had offered Mount Vernon $6.2 million while the church was asking for $20.3 million. Mount Vernon will be holding a family meeting to discuss the situation among themselves on Aug. 13.

How does one spark a new tradition? Have a former Nobel Peace Prize winning President and the daughter of a Nobel Peace Prize winning civil rights leader invite you to Sunday Supper.

Former President Jimmy Carter and Bernice King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, invited several dozen civic leaders to the Carter Presidential Center as a kick-off event for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. The actual anniversary will be Aug. 28.

The event also gave a public boost to the Sunday Supper movement — an effort being launched by Points of Light, with support from Target, to get people of diverse backgrounds to come together around the dinner table to exchange ideas.

By Maria Saporta

It was a day of pride for the three Morton brothers.

On Saturday morning, the City of Atlanta officially dedicated a 1.2 mile multiuse path in Southwest Atlanta just blocks away from where they grew up — a trail that meanders through one of Atlanta’s few remaining forests and a trail that eventually will connect to the Atlanta BeltLine.

“We are standing on the shoulders of our parents who fought to save this forest,” said Bruce Morton, a leading citizen environmentalist who learned to value nature when he was growing up and spending time playing in the forest and the creek.

By Maria Saporta

In an attempt to revive the south site as the preferred option for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced Tuesday that the city has reached a deal to buy Friendship Baptist Church for $19.5 million.

“I believe the south site is the right long-term vision,” Reed said about his dedication to making the south site work. “It has two MARTA stations. It is close to the convention center. There would be less traffic and less congestion. And it would not have as great a mitigating impact on the neighborhoods.”

By Maria Saporta

The City of Atlanta sent out a media advisory Monday afternoon saying that Mayor Kasim Reed will make an announcement regarding the new Falcons stadium.

The speculation is that the press conference will announce that a deal has been reached between the City of Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church, one of two churches that would have to be acquired for the stadium to be located on a site south of the Georgia Dome.

But the question is whether such a deal would be too little too late.

Over the past couple of weeks, the proposed football stadium development has taken several twists and turns as negotiations to acquire property south of the Georgia Dome has stalled.