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The challenge is on to make Atlanta more energy efficient

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist MICHAEL NARK, CEO of Atlanta-based Prenova, a privately held enterprise energy management company

Have you heard of the Better Buildings Challenge? It’s a national campaign that was launched by President Obama in February to improve energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

The goal is to increase energy efficiency in commercial buildings by 20 percent by 2020 through issuing a series of incentives for upgrading offices. President Obama believes this initiative will create jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and make our air cleaner. But perhaps most importantly for the business sector, it will save money – an

Posted inDavid Pendered

Top-tier official is second to resign from transportation sales tax campaign team

by David Pendered

By David Pendered and Maria Saporta

A second ranking member is departing from the campaign team for the transportation sales tax that will be on the ballot next year.

Liz Flowers has resigned as communications manager, according to Renay Blumenthal, senior vice president of public policy for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and CEO of the non-profit corporation that is leading the sales tax campaign.

Flowers follows the exit of Glenn Totten, whose job as lead consultant placed him in the position of designing the campaign to inform the public about the sales tax and sway voters to support it.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Atlanta History Center looks to future with capital campaign, new look and new CEO

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 18, 2011

A major transformation is under way at the Atlanta History Center.

First, the center has initiated an international design competition to create a whole new look for its building on West Paces Ferry Road while improving several of its physical offerings. It has picked five design finalists, and the Atlanta History Center plans to select the winning architect and design by Dec. 1.

The center also is in the midst of a $27.4 million capital campaign to implement the new design. The campaign also will refresh and modernize the center’s Atlanta History Museum. The campaign includes $5 million to go toward the center’s endowment.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

Mere mortal walks out during the mythological mish-mash of the ‘Immortals’ movie

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

By Eleanor Ringel Cater

The mortality rate in “Immortals” is a mile-high, and I wondered for a while if, perhaps, I might’ve enjoyed the carnage more if I had opted for the 3-D version.

Or even the 3-D IMAX version.

But I’m pretty certain that there’s nothing that could improve this disastrous mish-mash of vaguely mythological references, rendered with blood-spurting splendor by director Tarsem Singh. A specialist in Omigod over-the-top visuals (remember “The Cell,” starring Jennifer Lopez in her first incarnation?), Singh may have been aiming for the next “300.”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Study shows Emory has $5.1 billion impact on Atlanta

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 11, 2011

One of metro Atlanta’s greatest economic engines is none other than Emory University.

The university recently commissioned New York-based Appleseed Inc. to conduct an independent, third-party review of its economic impact.

Emory President Jim Wagner said Nov. 8 that the university is the fourth-largest employer in metro Atlanta, with more than 23,300 jobs. Emory directly and indirectly supports nearly 50,000 jobs statewide.

Posted inLatest News

Woodruff Arts Center receives $15 million grant from Woodruff Foundation

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The Woodruff Arts Center today sent an email to its governing board that it has received a $15 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation to cover long deferred capital needs of the cultural institution.

The grant will be paid over the next two years.

In its letter to the center, the foundation stated: “This grant commitment is made in recognition of the substantial progress made in strengthening financial oversight and governance within the Woodruff Arts Center. Grant expenditures are to be

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Atlanta firm becomes global LEED leader

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 11, 2011

A small architecture firm in downtown Atlanta has become an international leader in the green building world.

The Epsten Group Inc., founded by Dagmar Epsten in 1991, also has developed two out of the 10 LEED Platinum projects in Georgia. Both of them have been for the firm’s own offices along Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward community — just feet away from the Martin Luther King Jr. historic sites.

Platinum is the highest possible designation provided by the U.S. Green Building Council, which oversees the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications.

Posted inLatest News

Georgia Tech said it would keep the front portion of the Crum & Forster building

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

As currently envisioned, Georgia Tech would redevelop the Crum & Forster block and keep more than the historic building’s facade but would want to tear down part of the building.

Lisa Grovenstein, Georgia Tech’s director of media relations, sent SaportaReport a couple of emails on Tuesday to elaborate further on the university’s conceptual plans for the block bordered by Spring Street, Fourth Street and West Peachtree Street and Amstead Place.

“In regard to your column on Crum & Forster, after checking with a number of people, I wanted to provide additional insight on future plans for that block of Technology Square,” Grovenstein wrote.

Posted inLatest News

Walton Family Foundation donating $25.5 million to KIPP Foundation

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The Walton Family Foundation announced today that it is investing $25.5 million in the KIPP Foundation over the next five years with the goal of doubling the number of students who attend the public charter schools across the country.

The grant will help families of 59,000 students attend KIPP’s schools by 2015. It also will assist the KIPP network’s goal to increase its college completion rates.

Since the KIPP Foundation’s inception, KIPP has grown to a national network of 109 public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. During the

Posted inLatest News, Michelle Hiskey

Finding new life by recycling license tags into art

by Michelle Hiskey

By Michelle Hiskey

The best holiday gift this year may be a common object refashioned through the creative eye of an artist like Dominique Lacey, and her re-born mother’s heart.

She and more than 100 edgy local artists will sell their unique creations this weekend at the Indie Craft Experience – ICE – near downtown Atlanta.

Many use recycled materials simply to be green, but Lacey’s art represents her personal renaissance after unnamable grief.

From old license plates, Lacey fashions one-of-a-kind cool things like $10 bangle bracelets and $75 large ornamental stars. From discarded auto tags, she

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta airport plans to expand its cargo business, aviation GM says

by David Pendered

By David Pendered

Atlanta intends to expand its air cargo business, airport General Manager Louis Miller said at Monday’s luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

“Cargo is very important to us,” Miller said. “Our goal for this year is to get two new airlines in here, and we already have one. So we’re half-way there.”

Miller’s remarks echo the emphasis Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has placed on growing Atlanta’s position in the global freight shipping industry.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

‘Showcase’ Waffle House to border Centennial Park

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 11, 2011

Waffle House soon will be the latest Atlanta institution to border Centennial Olympic Park with a signature location.

The national restaurant chain that was founded in metro Atlanta in 1955 is buying a prime piece of downtown land at the corner of Andrew Young International Boulevard and Centennial Olympic Park Boulevard for what will become a “showcase” for Waffle House.

“We are an Atlanta institution, and we will be down there near the World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium,” said Pat Warner, vice president of marketing and communications for Waffle House. “This is a great location for us because of the millions of people who are down there each year who will be exposed to our brand.”

Posted inLatest News

The Community Foundation celebrates 60 years of the Atlanta region’s evolution

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Sixty years. That’s how long the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta has been a conduit between philanthropists and local charities and initiatives.

The foundation celebrated “the Community that Philanthropy Built” at its annual meeting Monday at the Temple — complete with a hilarious improvisation act with two leading Atlanta actors and playwrights — Tom Key and Rob Cleveland.

It also was an opportunity for the community foundation to look back to its inception.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Fight to save historic Crum & Forster continues; Georgia Tech has big plans for block

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

New concerns exist on the fate of the historic Crum & Forster building — which recently had seemed safe from the demolition ball.

Preservationists and neighborhood leaders are sounding an alarm that a deal could be in the works to remove the “landmark” protection status of the building at 771 Spring St. in Midtown.

“My concern is that the landmark status of the building has not been finalized,” said Anthony Rizzuto, land-use committee chair for the Midtown Neighbors Association.

Posted inGuest Column

Bringing food trucks and fresh vegetables to communities good for Atlanta families

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist KWANZA HALL, Atlanta City Councilman — District 2

Atlanta’s street food movement is gaining traction. Positive media coverage, support from private land owners, legislative solutions from the Atlanta City Council, and imaginative cooking have combined to make 2011 the Year of the Food Truck.

We still have work to do to make it easier for food trucks to operate. The permitting process can seem mysterious and subjective. Existing city contracts limit our ability to open streets and sidewalks to this new group of mobile entrepreneurs.

All in all, though, we are moving in the right direction.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta Streetcar aims to meet federal completion deadline of May 2013 with help from city

by David Pendered

By David Pendered

Legislation needed to build the Atlanta Streetcar is starting to move swiftly through Atlanta City Hall, including a proposal to allow Peachtree Street to be blocked during rush hours of the 18-month construction period.

This week, three measures to provide for the streetcar’s construction are expected to be approved by the Transportation Committee of the Atlanta City Council. If approved, the council may consider them at its Nov. 21 meeting.

These efforts and others intend to allow the city to meet the federally imposed completion deadline of May 2013. Construction sometimes may go on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet that deadline, according to city documents.

Posted inLatest News

Coca-Cola’s Muhtar Kent tells a ‘love story’ about Atlanta

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta and the Coca-Cola Co. can be described as having a “great love story,” according to Muhtar Kent, the chairman and CEO of 125-year beverage company.

Kent was the keynote speaker at the World Affairs Council of Atlanta Friday at the Commerce Club where he shared both super-global and super-local thoughts on the current state of affairs.

But Kent devoted much of his talk to reiterating the company’s devotion and appreciation of its hometown.

Back in 1886, the first Coke was served at Jacob’s Pharmacy at Five Points just a few blocks south of the current location of the Commerce Club at 191 Peachtree St. Back in May, Coca-Cola lit up its

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Georgia Tech has second-best fundraising year ever

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 4, 2011

A slow economy has not stopped Georgia Tech’s fundraising prowess.
For the fiscal year ending on June 30, Georgia Tech received $118.1 million — its second-best fundraising year ever.

And those numbers, which Georgia Tech reported to the Council for Aid to Education, only include gifts received rather than pledges made to the university.

“Georgia Tech alumni and friends have a long-standing tradition of generously supporting the Institute,” said Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson, in a statement.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ tackles complex and private nature of FBI’s Hoover

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

By Eleanor Ringel Cater

The last time Clint Eastwood tried to make up for the implied homophobia in his Dirty Harry character, it was a stumbling, ineffective adaptation of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (though, to give Clint a break, the book is stumbling, ineffective and false, false, false in its claim to be non-fiction).

A more mellow, more awarded, more experienced Eastwood has another go at it with “J. Edgar,” his ambitious, richly filmed and ultimately unsatisfying take on J. Edgar Hoover, the founder and, for almost 50 years, head of the FBI.

What Eastwood and his star, Leonardo DiCaprio, try to do is reconcile the at-odds aspects of Hoover’s character.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Atlanta Falcons to kick off new stadium design

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 4, 2011

The Atlanta Falcons and Georgia World Congress Center will soon send out a request for proposals to potential designers of a new football stadium.

Falcons and GWCC officials expect to issue the RFP by the end of November for national and international architects to provide conceptual designs for a new open-air football stadium. The new stadium would be located north of the Falcons existing home — the Georgia Dome — at the intersection of Northside Drive and Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard.

“It gives us an opportunity to look at some conceptual designs for the stadium and to get cost estimates,” said Rich McKay, Falcons president and CEO. “Our hope is that it would be issued in the next 30 days.”

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