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Posted inLatest News

Aaron’s acquiring Progressive Finance Holdings for $700 million; urges shareholders to reject Vintage bid

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By Maria Saporta

Atlanta-based Aaron’s Inc., a leading lease-to-own retailer, announced Tuesday morning that it has acquired Progressive Finance Holdings, LLC, a leading virtual lease-to-own company, from Summit Partners in an all-cash transaction valued at about $700 million.

Aaron’s will operate Progressive as a wholly-owned subsidiary. John Robinson, Progressive’s CEO, will join the Aaron’s executive leadership team as executive vice president and CEO of Progressive, reporting directly to Ronald W. Allen, Aaron’s CEO.

“This is a highly complementary and transformative acquisition for Aaron’s, and we are eager to capture the significant opportunities this combination will provide for our customers, franchisees, and shareholders,” Allen said in the release.

Posted inLive Healthy, Atlanta!, Thought Leader

Spring is Here, and So Are Allergies

by SaportaReport

By David Martin, President and CEO of VeinInnovations Temperatures are climbing as the weather begins to reflect what the calendar declared in mid-March – it’s spring! Along with azaleas come allergies, and this year experts anticipate a harsher than usual allergy season. Thank the infamous polar vortex. Winter weather has continued on longer than normal, […]

Posted inMaria's Metro

Chris Leinberger: Atlanta region ‘absolutely needs rail transit;’ question is will you lead or be a laggard?

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How can Atlanta be both a “poster child of sprawl” and a burgeoning example of “walkable urban places” – creating a metro area with compact town centers?

That was the question Chris Leinberger, a real estate executive and urbanist who specializes in market trends, decided to ask himself during a “Creative Changemakers” talk at Serenbe on April 11.

It was an appropriate topic for Leinberger because he, as much as anyone, is responsible for labeling Atlanta a poster child of sprawl. Now Leinberger is leading the back-pedaling movement — armed with facts and figures — letting both local and national developers know that the sprawl pendulum is swinging the other way.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Fulton County ramps up West Nile virus program; two hotspots are located near future Falcons stadium

by David Pendered

Fulton County is seeking to hire a company to combat the West Nile virus and will continue to target two hotspots, Vine City and English Avenue, both of which are near the future Falcons stadium.

Fulton County became aggressive in fighting mosquitoes, which carry the disease, following the death of an elderly Vine City resident in 2001, said Kevin Jones, Fulton County’s deputy director of environmental health services.

“We decided to do everything in our power to make sure that never happens again,” Jones said.

Posted inTom Baxter

To get elected, you need political intelligence more than a degree

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Last week National Journal editorial director Ron Brownstein led an interesting teleconference devoted to the various ways in which the American electorate is being reshaped by changing demographics. One of the trends he noted was the increasing economic edge which those with college degrees have over those who don’t, with the graduates of the nation’s most elite schools at the top of the heap.

Consider the U.S. Supreme Court, for example. From 1900 to 1950 there were always between one and three graduates of the Harvard or Yale law schools on the court. Today the only justice who didn’t graduate from one of these schools is Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and that’s only because Ginsberg transferred from Harvard Law to Columbia Law after her marriage.

Posted inUncategorized

Cotton mills and the fabric of our past

by Jamil Zainaldin

Old cotton mills can make for beautiful ruins.

Those weather-beaten red-brick buildings with bell towers and rows upon rows of windows have a haunted quality. They stand like long-abandoned monuments, scattered through the countryside and in our towns and cities.

And they give no hint of the deafening roar and lint-clogged air that once spewed from their machines during one of the most culture-changing periods of Georgia history.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Tech marching band’s offbeat amazing race

by Ben Smith

Long before TV’s “The Amazing Race,” an elaborate competition with puzzles and physical challenges already took place each year around Atlanta with little fanfare. On Saturday, the 25th anniversary Get-a-Clue featured 13 teams in a high-tech elaborate scavenger hunt, a modern tradition started by Georgia Tech musicians.

Contestants jumped out of cars in front of eateries in Decatur and Buckhead looking lost and determined at the same time. Carrying cinderblocks, they scampered through Inman Park, scanning QR codes from cryptic notes attached to public art, benches and other things.

Posted inLatest News

After 30 years, Young Audiences to change its name to Arts for Learning

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By Maria Saporta

At its 30th anniversary lunch celebration, Young Audiences did something a little different.

It announced to the world that it is changing its name — to Arts for Learning/ Woodruff Arts Center — on June 1.

Charisse Williams, president of Young Audiences, said the past year has been a great year to reflect on the organization’s past three decades, but also a time to look forward to its next 30 years. Young Audiences has been refining its strategy and working on how to best tell its story.

Posted inLatest News

Arthur Blank expected to announce pro Atlanta soccer team on Wednesday

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By Maria Saporta

In one of the most anticipated sports announcements in recent Atlanta history, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is expected to announce on Wednesday that he has reached an agreement with Major League Soccer to become the newest owner of a franchise soccer team.

A media advisory was sent out Monday morning saying that there would be a major announcement on Wednesday with Blank, MLS Commissioner Don Garber along with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Frank Poe, the executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority about the future of soccer in Atlanta.

Posted inGuest Column

A MARTA story: Why the state never contributed funding – from day one

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist W. STELL HUIE, a retired Atlanta attorney who served as MARTA’s first general counsel

Background information for readers: MARTA was formed by an act of the Georgia General Assembly in 1965 and was originally proposed as a rapid transit agency for the Atlanta metropolitan area – DeKalb, Fulton, Clayton, Gwinnett, and Cobb counties.  That year, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and the City of Atlanta passed a referendum authorizing participation in the system. The referendum failed in Cobb.

It was November, 1970. Huie and Harland was serving as general counsel to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), and I was the responsible partner. We had just reached a very delicate local compromise on how to finance the MARTA transit system.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

Anita Hill documentary shows us views toward women have improved

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Anita?

Anita from West Side Story? Anita Sharpe, Bloomsberg bureau chief in Atlanta?

Anita….is she the former Mousequeteer who made all those beach movies with Frankie Avalon (oh oops…that was Annette).

So my first question…aside from the insider query as to why nobody knew this was opening here…is, why did filmmaker Freida Lee Mock make the title “Anita” instead of “Anita Hill?”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: John Williams says Cobb school board ‘kicked’ him ‘in the ass’

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 4, 2014

Goodbye Cobb County. For the first time in 40 years, John Williams— the legendary apartment developer and metro power broker — will not be based in Cobb County.

Williams signed a lease on March 28 to move his current company — Preferred Apartment Communities — from the One Overton Park building where he has been for 10 years to the Medici building on Northside Drive in the city of Atlanta.

Posted inLatest News

Turner Entertainment’s Steve Koonin joining Atlanta Hawks as new CEO

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By Maria Saporta

Becoming CEO of the Atlanta Hawks is “every boy’s dream,” said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks.

The Atlanta Hawks announced on Sunday that Koonin will be the new CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena — a move aimed at strengthening the brand of the basketball team as well as focusing on more strategic plans for the organization.

“We just felt we needed a CEO who could step out of our day-to-day operations, both on the business side and the basketball side,” said Bruce Levenson, the majority owner of the Atlanta Hawks, in a telephone interview Sunday night.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Leaders: Transportation plans show united leadership, absence of politics

by David Pendered

The spirit of regional leadership that emerged during the planning for the 2012 transportation sales tax referendum remains intact and is evident in the region’s new short- and long-term transportation plans, according to transportation officials.

“This is the first post-referendum Transportation Improvement Program [and] we did this very well,” said Jannine Miller, GRTA’s former executive director and newest board member.

“It was very political a long time ago,” said GRTA board member J.T. Williams. “The county chair got to say, ‘These are my two projects,’ and it didn’t matter what the projects were. That is a thing of the past. We have to get the best bang for the buck.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Falcons stadium to break ground in May as judge weighs legality of Atlanta’s $200 million funding

by David Pendered

The groundbreaking for the future Falcons stadium has been postponed more than a month as the legal battle continues over the $200 million in construction financing to be provided by Atlanta.

The original schedule envisioned the ceremony would place the last week of March. Now the target is an unspecified date in May, according to a report on Bloomberg.com. It’s unclear if the delay is related to the court case.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville said he expects to rule on the case no earlier than April 21.

Posted inLatest News

LBJ Library’s Civil Rights Summit shines light on Atlanta from Austin

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By Maria Saporta

As the three-day Civil Rights Summit unfolded at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, one thing was abundantly clear.

Atlanta and its leaders were well represented during the event.

The summit began on Tuesday with Georgia’s own — former President Jimmy Carter, who spoke about his own evolution of growing up in a small rural town during the age of segregation. All his playmates were black, but they lived separate and unequal lives.

Posted inDavid Pendered

GRTA complies with Civil Rights Act, except for amenities in four parking lots, internal report shows

by David Pendered

GRTA complies with the federal Civil Rights Act in the operation of Xpress bus service, but four parking lots lack required amenities, according to results of a self-review the GRTA board discussed Wednesday.

The issue is a lack of amenities such as ADA parking in a leased lot, pavilions, security cameras, and call boxes, the review determined. The board voted to address the shortcomings.

Other than the parking lot issues, the review determined that GRTA complies with the provisions of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as administered by the Federal Transit Administration.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Top Georgia CEOs hope to stop social legislation that hurts business

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on April 4, 2014

At the March board meeting of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, 2014 Chairman Richard Anderson issued a call to action.

“We are going to have to step up as a business community and take a much more active role in stopping this social legislation that doesn’t help us in the global marketplace,” Anderson, the CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc., told the top- tier group of business leaders meeting behind closed doors.

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