By Maria Saporta
The Callawolde Fine Arts Center has named Peggy Still Johnson as its new executive director.
Johnson will begin her new job on Feb. 4. The announcement was made Monday by the Callanwolde board of directors.
Johnson is not a newcomer to business or the arts – she is a successful entrepreneur and an accomplished piano and vocal performer, composer, arranger, and arts educator, according to the press release.
By Maria Saporta
Demming Bass, chief operating officer of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, announce he is resigning from the organization.
But don’t start speculating about whether he’s headed to another chamber. Bass said he is going to “pursue some exciting opportunities outside of the Chamber world.”
But most importantly, Bass wrote in an email that he intends to create “some special memories through long-put-off travel plans with my twin girls, Ashley and Reagan, before they start school. Time is fleeting and only gives you a few rare windows of opportunity to take advantage of them before they’re gone.”
Deteriorating conditions at Clark Atlanta University may force a company that’s comprised of Atlanta’s development arm and CAU to close, according to the latest audit of Invest Atlanta.
According to bondview.com, ADA/CAU Partners, Inc. already is in technical default of bonds it issued for more than $50 million to finance the construction of student housing. The company has depleted its reserve funds and had to borrow from its insurer to make its payment last year, according to the audit of Invest Atlanta.
The Invest Atlanta audit includes this cautionary statement about the partnership between Invest Atlanta and CAU: “Should the company’s operations not improve, the company might not be able to continue as a going concern.”
One of the most vocal critics of the Atlanta Regional Commission attended his first board meeting on Jan. 23 as a new board member.
Steve Brown, the recently-named chairman of the Fayette County Commission, was an outspoken critic of last summer’s regional transportation referendum, also known as the T-Splost.
The referendum failed, thanks partly to Brown and the Tea Party’s strident opposition to it and its project list.
When Saxby Chambliss was elected to Congress in 1994, he was the first Republican to represent a rural Deep South district since Reconstruction, which made him stand out in the big freshman GOP class that came to Washington that tumultuous year.
He could have been described then as a pioneer, which is hardly the way he seemed last week when Chambliss announced he’d decided not to seek a third U.S. Senate term next year. The two-decade arc of that Washington career spans much of the story of what’s happened in American politics since the year when the Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time in decades, and Newt Gingrich declared Year One of the new Republican Era.
By Chris Schroder
Three weeks ago, Herb Nelson sat in the bleachers as he watched his 12-year-old son playing on his all-star basketball team when he had a Moment that changed everything – his son signaled to his coach that he needed to be taken out of the game. A minute later, his son slumped to the floor and didn’t get up.
“He took a shot, kind of looked like he was tired, and asked to come out of the ball game,” Herb said. “About a minute later, he collapsed on the sideline.”
Herb and other family members rushed over to Jeremy Nelson and worry struck, as it would strike any parent. They watched as a doctor – also in the stands that night – check Jeremy’s vital signs.
For a few politicians and political advisors, the past few days have been filled with rapid fire text messages and battery-draining cell phone calls about the biggest news to impact metro Atlanta in quite a while — the 2014 election to replace retiring U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss.
The first — and only to date — polls released jointly by political consulting firms H.E.G. and Apache just hours after the announcement already has Georgia Republicans and Democrats strategizing on how to ensure their party secures the open seat.
Fifteen years ago this month, 678 became Atlanta’s third telephone prefix, and every call became a 10-digit dial. Today, when smartphones let us tap to connect, it’s easy to forget past milestones in how Atlantans connect – and what those turning points meant in the perception of the city’s growth and who we are.
For many native Atlantans inside I-285, there’s 404 and everything else. That’s what they grew up with. The 770, 678 and 470 will always belong to the Johnny-come-latelys and suburbanites.
The 404 prefix is dialed into their identity, a shared jersey number for the veterans on Atlanta’s home team. It is a holdover from a simpler time, before the rest of us got here and made life a whole lot more complicated.
Buckhead provides an interesting glimpse into the mixed bag that is metro Atlanta’s commercial real estate industry, a vital piece of the region’s economy.
The good news is two major transportation projects should improve access measurably in a region where prestigious buildings are surrounded by traffic congestion. One project involves MARTA’s Buckhead Station, while the other addresses the interchange of Ga. 400 and I-85.
The not-so-good news is the office market continues to drag. Buckhead was one of the region’s five submarkets that lost tenancy in fourth quarter 2012, though Buckhead showed an overall gain in the year, according to the latest vacancy report from Cassidy Turley, a commercial real estate services provider.
By Maria Saporta Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 25, 2013
Theatrical Outfit will celebrate a new era on Jan. 31 — a morning when its mortgage will be burned — providing financial security for the theater company.
That morning, Theatrical Outfit will hand over the title to its downtown building to the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. The foundation will then lease the building back to Theatrical Outfit for $1 a year.
By Guest Columnist DARAKA E. SATCHER, partner and chief oprating officer at the Pendleton Group consulting firm
A few times a week, I have the privilege of working from a location where I have a great view of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on a clear day. I can see the whole expanse of it and – if I give myself enough time to pay attention for a moment – observe a few planes land or take off.
In other words, it is the ebb and flow of airport functions that can be seen at a number of places throughout the world. I’ve seen enough of that to not be too fascinated by it, but I often have a different reaction watching these run-of-the-mill activities occur at Hartsfield-Jackson. Because every now and then, I recognize that I’m actually watching the primary engine behind the phenomenon of world-shrinking.
“Quartet” is the movie I wanted “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” to be.
Yet again, some of England’s very best have been gathered together for a little heart, a little soul and some expertly executed comedy. But “Quartet,” blithely handled by Dustin Hoffman in his directorial debut, actually gives these golden oldies something to do.
Based on a play by Ronald Harwood — who also did “The Dresser,” which, in its movie incarnation, starred Laurence Olivier and Tom Courtenay — “Quartet” takes place at Beecham House, a home for retired musicians. It’s a nice place, well kept, with lovely grounds.
By David Martin, President and CEO of VeinInnovations Last week, I wrote about changes coming to our state’s health care system. Here’s a brief summary of last week’s column: In November 2012, Governor Nathan Deal wrote a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, declining to create a state run insurance […]
By Maria Saporta
Gov. Nathan Deal confirmed Friday morning that the Atlanta Falcons and the state are exploring options that would not require approval from the state legislature.
But Deal said it is too early to know whether that would be possible.
“We are sort of in a waiting period right now,” Deal said after a press conference announcing a major expansion of AirWatch’s operations in the Atlanta region.
The message about the value of rainwater harvesting should reach a broader audience this year.
The Regional Business Council has signed on as a partner with the Southeast Rainwater Harvesting Systems Assoc., a non-profit that promotes the endeavor. The RBC plans to spread the message through the business community, possibly throughs chambers of commerce, as well as the private sector.
“What caught my attention was the significant amount of water we as a region could save through rainwater harvesting,” said Terry Lawler, the RBC’s executive director. “Our organization has the capacity to get this message into the public eye in a way that will be bigger than the volunteer organization can.”
By Maria Saporta
The 2013 recipient of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will be U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), a civil rights leader and public servant.
Lewis, who has become known as the conscience of the U.S. Congress, will be awarded $100,000 prize by Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at a luncheon on April 4.
“John Lewis put his life on the line for many years during the 1960s to bring about equality under the law for all Americans,” said Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson in a release. “His unflinching civil rights leadership and ongoing advocacy for social change throughout his career have elevated the causes of human rights around the world. It is our privilege to honor the life and work of Congressman Lewis through the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage.”
MARTA GM Keith Parker said Wednesday he intends to pursue a consultant’s recommendations that MARTA privatize some services in order to fix the battered budget.
“If we make these adjustments, we will, by 2018 again be contributing to our fiscal reserves rather than bleeding them,” Parker told the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce during his talk at the “Executive Speaker Series,” formerly known as the “First Monday Lunch Series.”
Privatization will fly in the face of Parker’s plans to boost morale among MARTA’s 4,500 workers. Privatization also will present opportunities for local businesses to take over the service, he said – almost in passing.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 18, 2013
The East Lake community is close to realizing its dream of offering top-quality education from cradle to college.
On Jan. 15, Gov. Nathan Deal joined other dignitaries to break ground on the new Drew Charter School Senior Academy at the Charlie Yates Campus in East Lake. The academy will permit Drew to teach students through high school. Currently, the Drew Charter School serves nearly 1,000 students from pre-K through 8th grade.
By Maria Saporta
A revised deal for a new stadium currently is being negotiated whereby the Georgia Legislature would not have to vote on increasing the bonding capacity of Georgia World Congress Center to $300 million.
Currently negotiations are underway at the Governor’s mansion between Gov. Nathan Deal, the Atlanta Falcons and the City of Atlanta where the bonding capacity would shift from the state to the city.
No matter which governmental entity would end up issuing the bonds for the $1 billion project, the deal would not change substantially. The $300 million bond package would continue to be backed by the existing hotel-motel taxes that are collected in the City of Atlanta. The Falcons and the National Football League would cover two-thirds of the stadium’s cost.
Morehouse College, the alma mater of Martin Luther King, Jr., has received a credit rating that’s barely investment grade, and with a negative outlook, on $23.4 million in bonds to be sold this week. The rating is just three notches above a rating of speculative.
Kennesaw State University has received a credit rating that’s solid investment grade, and stable, on $41.6 million in bonds slated for sale last month.
These two ratings illustrate the divergence of credit risk among Georgia’s institutions of higher learning. As state lawmakers consider Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal to borrow almost $200 million this year to expand facilities at public colleges and universities, they face going to market in a sector dinged as negative across the board by Moody’s Investors Services.
