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June 2008
Where should Post Properties go from here?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, Post Properties announced that it had not received any definitive offers to sell the development company.
That opens up the question of what will happen to the company that made its name developing Post Apartments landscaped with tulips.
The company has changed dramatically since 2001, the last full year that founder John Williams ran the Real Estate Investment Trust. He lost control of the company when certain board members decided to change management. He also failed a proxy fight in 2003.
Williams flirted with the idea of buying back the company at two different times in the past year. But after taking a hard look at the company, Williams, 65, decided he did not want to take on the challenge of owning and running Post Properties again.
The company is struggling financially, especially during the economic recession in the real estate industry. The price of a share of Post stock dropped to under $30 at Friday’s close.
What should Post Properties do to turn itself around?
And had John Williams been able to keep control of the company six years ago, do you think today’s outcome would have been different?
Your thoughts?
Column: John Williams finally lets go of Post Properties
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A conversation with John Williams: ‘I don’t need to go back’ to Post
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At long last, John Williams can get Post Properties out of his system.
Williams, founder of Post Properties, was forced out of the apartment-development firm in 2002. The next year, he was unsuccessful in a proxy fight against the current management.
On a personal and professional basis, the loss of Post Properties kept eating away at Williams. He came close on two occasions in the last year to buying back Post Properties. He dreamed of a day when he would be able to take over his former company.
But as of last week, all that changed.
“I was not able to walk away until I realized Post was such a radically different company from the one I founded and ran for 30 years,” Williams said Thursday in a telephone interview. “I now have inner peace. I don’t need to go back and own or manage Post Properties.”
Post Properties put the company up for sale earlier this year, but after five months of trying to find a buyer, the company announced Wednesday that it had not received a definitive proposal from any of the potential bidders. Post CEO David Stockert said in a release that “conditions in the economy and the financial markets combined to produce a difficult transaction environment.”
That was not the case a year ago when, Williams said, he submitted a letter to the board expressing his interest to buy Post Properties for between $56 and $59 a share.
“I made a very legitimate offer a year ago,” Williams said. “The truth is that they should have negotiated with me. We didn’t even get a reply to our letter.”
Had Post entertained Williams’ offer last summer, it would have been at the height of its market value. Post Properties closed Friday at $29.44 a share.
“In retrospect, I probably would have made a bad decision,” Williams said. “It’s just unfortunate. They had an opportunity, and they let it slip through their fingers. Was this to try to stick it in John Williams’ eye?”
Six months later, Williams made another offer, this time for between $44 and $47 a share. But that offer was contingent on Williams doing his due diligence on the company.
Williams didn’t like what he saw.
“I just turned 65 in March,” Williams said. “After looking at it and getting my head under the tent, I saw that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men wouldn’t be able to put it back together again. I frankly didn’t think I had the skill set or energy to go back in and run the company like it was when I was at the helm.”
For the first time since he left Post in 2002, Williams said he was able to step back and see Post strictly from a business perspective.
“It’s been a very cathartic experience,” Williams said. “It’s not the same company I founded. It’s not the same company I successfully ran for 30 years. It’s not the same company that had continuous record earnings. It’s not the same company that won innumerable awards.”
Williams said he sent Stockert a “thoughtful” letter two years ago urging him not to invest heavily in the condo industry because he believed the market was softening.
“Stockert sent me back a letter saying that they knew what they were doing,” Williams said.
“Their biggest bugaboo was getting into the condo business,” he said.
Analysts have tended to agree with that assessment on Post.
The company has said it will not comment beyond its announcement, and declined Friday to comment for this column.
In the last four years, Williams has been able to put his own business theories to work.
He has created a privately held real estate investment company that includes apartments, retail and office.
“We have 47 active real estate transactions totaling $3 billion,” Williams said. “I have 40 partners and 19 companies, and I’m at peace with where I am and where I plan on going. The truth is that Williams Realty Advisors is probably more like the old Post I knew than the way Post is today.”
Williams said he still has “concern and compassion” for Post’s shareholders (of which he is one) and long-time employees. “I think they’re in for a rough period,” Williams said.
Already, a Chicago-based hedge fund is launching a proxy battle against Post’s current management and has presented an alternate slate of directors.
Intellectually, Williams has been able to put Post behind him for purely business reasons.
It has been harder to get over the personal hurt. “Rather than people I considered my friends and cohorts standing beside me, they all stuck knives in my back even though I had been very good to them,” Williams said. “They effectively kicked me out of the company I founded. It was indeed like a child being taken away from me.”
But instead of getting all riled up, Williams reflected on this latest twist in his relationship with Post.
“Frankly, I’m over it,” Williams said. “I can put it all behind me, which will be a relief to a lot of friends and to my family.”
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Atlanta’s Anderson tapped for IRS oversight board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dick Anderson, currently executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, has just been named to an advisory post by President George W. Bush.
Anderson has been nominated to serve a five-year term on the Internal Revenue Service’s oversight board. His term will expire in September, 2013.
Before becoming an executive at GRTA, Anderson served a few months as group president of global business services for AT&T. Before that, he was a vice chairman of the former BellSouth Corp. serving as president of business markets.
Anderson also served as last year’s chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
The White House released the news of Anderson’s appointment on Thursday.
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Community urges Tech to save building
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Make no mistake. Community leaders do not want the Georgia Tech Foundation to demolish the historic Crum & Forster building at 771 Spring St.
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At the Development Review Committee meeting Thursday evening in Midtown, every single person who spoke voiced opposition to the foundation’s plan to tear down the 1926 building and replace it with a vacant lot.
“This is a first-rate building,” said Mark McDonald, the new president of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. “It is important to the history of Atlanta, and it’s important to the history of Georgia Tech. Every solution for the historic preservation of this building should be sought.”
In all, 22 people spoke out against the Georgia Tech Foundation’s plans to seek a demolition permit for the building. Some were Georgia Tech students. Some were Georgia Tech alums. Others were Georgia Tech faculty members. And most were concerned Atlanta leaders who saw this fight as a crossroads for the city’s future.
A Georgia Tech alum said he was not proud of the way his alma-mater was responding to community concerns. “There’s a way to save this building,” he said.”There are few moments in the life of cities that determine their future.” He went on to compare this fight to the effort to save the Fox more than three decades ago.
Other alums said they would no longer give money to support the foundation until it dropped its plans to demolish the Crum & Forster building.
Myles Smith, a community leader who is retired from Georgia Power, took it a step further. He called the three foundation representatives at the meeting “hired guns.” He urged the community to put pressure on members of the Georgia Tech Foundation board, many of whom are well-recognized civic leaders.
“We need to tell those board members that they’re doing the wrong thing,” Smith said. “We need to find those people and start pestering them.”
Penelope Cheroff, an Ansley Park resident who chairs the Neighborhood Planning Unit - E, agreed.
“We can not stop this as much as we’d like to,” Cheroff said. “The foundation has decided to destroy this building.” She then urged people to find out who is on the foundation’s board and urge the trustees to save the building.
The foundation’s web site is www.gtf.gatech.edu, and there’s a link to its board of trustees.
About 1,700 people already have signed an online petition urging the foundation to save the building.
Although Georgia Tech is steadfast in its desire to get a permit to tear down the classically-designed structure, foundation representative Carl Westmoreland said the foundation is “committed to looking at different alternatives for the building.”
The last person who spoke at the Development Review Committee meeting was Ellen Dunham Jones, director of Georgia Tech’s architecture program.
“I certainly would like to offer our help,” she said, explaining that the foundation has been supportive of the architecture program’s in the past. “We would like to help the foundation back by helping find out what alternatives there really are.”
At that point, the members of the Development Review Committee took a vote to oppose the Georgia Tech Foundation’s application for a demolition permit. The vote was unanimous with one exception — a Georgia Tech employee who abstained because he felt it would be a conflict of interest for him to vote.
Now that recommendation will go the city of Atlanta’s Bureau of Planning, which would either approve or deny Georgia Tech’s demolition permit.
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Change is afoot at Atlanta’s United Way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Word has it that Atlanta’s United Way will soon have a new chief operating officer.
Donna Buchanan, who recently retired as president of Junior Achievement of Georgia, has been named as United Way’s new COO. Her first day on the job will be July 7.
Buchanan is replacing Ayesha Khanna, who has been COO of the organization since 2004. Previously Khanna was head of Atlanta’s YWCA, where she had been since 1999. Khanna is expected to take a few months off to spend time more time with her daughter.
The change is seen as a way for Milton Little, who has been president of Atlanta’s United Way for nearly a year, to put his own team in place.
The news was disclosed at a United Way board meeting earlier this week, but board members were asked not to disclose the news.
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Atlanta known for its generosity, Lehfeldt says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In talking about his upcoming retirement in August, Martin Lehfeldt, president of the Southeastern Council of Foundations, told me he had read an article recently about how generous Atlantans are when it comes to philanthropy.
The article appeared in the Dallas Morning News a while back, and it is based on data from 2002. But fund-raising leaders often believe that these numbers don’t radically change year to year.
The article stated that, from its analysis, Atlanta is actually the most generous metropolitan area in the nation.
Thanks for sharing Martin.
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More Georgians give to charity; but the average gift has gotten smaller
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More Georgians are making philanthropic donations, but the amount of their gifts has gone down.
Those are the results of the study Georgia’s Giving Trends by the Atlanta-based Alexander, Haas, Martin & Partners fund-raising firm.
Georgia’s charitable contributions by individuals, based on Internal Revenue Service data, has gone from $2.73 billion in 1996 to $6.61 billion in 2006, the latest year available.
Between 2005 and 2006, total giving by Georgians went up $100 million; and the total number of donors increased by 45,000 between 2005 and 2006. That meant the average gift dropped from $4,207 to $4,110.
Those figures were released at a luncheon Tuesday at the Commerce Club, along with the results of the latest report from the Giving USA Foundation, also released this week.
The Georgia survey also listed the top 10 foundations in terms of their 2006 giving and 2006 assets.
The No. 1 foundation in both cases was the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, which made grants of $100.3 million in 2006; it had assets of about $2.25 billion.
The Thomas and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation has given funds for two in-depth philanthropic studies on Georgia that should be completed by the end of the year. One study will focus on where philanthropic dollars come from, and the other will look at where philanthropic dollars are given.
The national Giving USA Foundation reports show that nationally, charitable giving topped $306.4 billion in 2007, a record. It also showed that individuals give 75 percent of that. Religion is still the top recipient —- 33.4 percent, but that continues to decline. In the mid-1980s, religion received 56 percent of all giving.
The Giving USA Foundation has an important Atlanta link. Its chairwoman is Del Martin, who is a founding partner of Alexander, Haas, Martin & Partners.
Martin is turning over the day-to-day management of the firm to David King so she can focus on Giving USA. She will remain chairwoman of the firm.
Philanthropists about to retire
During this summer, several people who have played special roles in the community will be retiring.
Bobby Mays, SunTrust’s first vice president of endowment and foundations, will retire this month. But he’s agreed to help out as a consultant until the end of 2009 with the bank’s monthly grant-seeking forum.
Mays said he’s following the advice of one of his mentors: “You should always go when everyone still wants you to stay and when you’re at the top of your game.” Art McClung, a 25-year executive at Georgia Power who has been on loan to the city of Atlanta for the past six years, will retire July 1.
McClung, whose civic roles have included vice chairmanship of MARTA, plans to keep working with Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Next Steps program to help graduating high school students.
“I’m going to remain committed to making Atlanta a better place to work, live and play,” McClung said, adding that he plans to become more involved in several political campaigns.
And after 11 years, Martin Lehfeldt, president of the Southeastern Council of Foundations, is retiring from his post in August. He plans to help in the transition of his successor, Michael Howland, who currently serves as CEO of Noble of Indiana, which serves people with developmental disabilities
“I can’t think of a more exciting time to be involved in philanthropy,” Lehfeldt said, because of the growth in the number of foundations and the “intergenerational transfer” of giving.
By the way, former BellSouth community executive Jim Breedlove joined the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in February as vice president.
Bankers back to competing again
One reinvigorated community leader is Bill Linginfelter, who this week became head of Regions Financial Corp.’s Atlanta and North Georgia operations.
Linginfelter, who had been Georgia president for Wachovia, lost his job through a reorganization last fall, just a couple of months before he was to become chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
So Kessel Stelling, president of Bank of North Georgia, agreed to become the 2008 chairman of the Metro chamber.
The irony? Linginfelter and Stelling are back to being competitors in the market.
“If I couldn’t be chairman, I’m just glad that it was someone who had as much interest and passion for our city and region as Kessel,” Linginfelter said. “He is a worthy competitor.”
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Linginfelter comes full circle; back working for a Birmingham-based bank
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill Linginfelter, who was reorganized out of his job as Wachovia’s Georgia president last fall, couldn’t be happier now working as the top executive for Regions Financial in Atlanta and North Georgia.
Linginfelter began working for Birmingham-based Regions Bank on Monday, and he has spent the first few days “in a whirlwind of meetings and greetings with an emphasis of getting to know employees.”
The job also means that Linginfelter is once again working for a Birmingham bank. Linginfelter had been the top Georgia executive of Birmingham-based SouthTrust until it was acquired by Charlotte-based Wachovia in 2004.
“There’s something poetic about that,” Linginfelter said, adding that there are similarities between the cultures of SouthTrust and Regions. “It says something about the strength of the Birmingham and Charlotte banking markets.”
Linginfelter said he feels “blessed” that he’s landed with Regions because he can stay in Atlanta, his home for 30 years. And although this is a difficult time for the banking industry, Linginfelter said Regions is well-positioned among its peers.
“The markets they’ve gone into have paid off,” Linginfelter said. “It’s a great opportunity. While Regions has a franchise in Georgia and a presence in Atlanta, there’s a world of potential available to the bank.”
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Roadshow shows growing Brazil, Georgia ties
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The government of Brazil has embarked on a $313 billion initiative to improve the country’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, sewers, water systems, high-speed rail, ports, power generators, subways.
In an effort to get U.S. partners, Brazilian leaders are in the midst of a “roadshow” in key North American cities. First stop — Atlanta.
The delegation from Brazil is at an all-day session today at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce presenting the various opportunities in the growing South American country.
Welcoming the delegation to town was Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who recently returned from an economic mission to Brazil.
‘We are excited to know about the $300 billion infrastructure program,” Cagle told the group. “We want to help make sure that is a success.”
One area of particular interest to Cagle is partnering with Brazil in the development of ethanol as a viable alternative to imported oil.
The morning session was also an opportunity for Atlantans to meet Brazil’s new consul general in Atlanta — Ambassador Senna Ganem.
Ganem told the group that the Brazilian consulate will open in Atlanta sometime in July. Ganem said he would be working hard to bring other meetings, such as the roadshow, to Atlanta to strengthen the ties between Georgia and Brazil.
Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, said Brazil already is Georgia’s 11th largest export market.
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Atlanta as a home for non-profits’ headquarters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About 20 years ago, Atlanta leaders made it a top priority to seek the headquarters of major charitable organizations looking to save their entities operating dollars.
The results of that initiative were largely successful, attracting the offices and leaders of nonprofits that are household names to all of us — the American Cancer Society, CARE and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
In the last year or so, Habitat for Humanity International also moved its headquarters to Atlanta from Americus, Ga.; and now the merged Points of Light Institute and Hands On Network has established Atlanta as its home.
Attracting the headquarters of these philanthropic organization is not unlike attracting the corporate headquarters of Fortune 500 companies. It increases the international exposure of Atlanta; it reinforces our region as a strong place to do business; it brings leaders from around the country and world for conferences; and it helps promote economic development for our state.
The reasons they move here also parallel the reasons companies move here: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, lower cost of living, ease in recruiting employees and a welcoming business environment.
What can our region and state do to attract more nonprofit headquarters?
Please share some of your ideas with the rest of us.
To read about the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s experience in making Atlanta its home….
Enjoy.
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Boys & Girls Clubs of America blossoms in its new home in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America made a smart business move in 1994 when it decided to call Atlanta home.
In the 14 years since it moved its headquarters from Manhattan to Midtown Atlanta, the Boys & Girls Clubs has experienced phenomenal growth fueled in part by its business strategy to relocate its base of operations.
Not only did the move from New York save the nation’s top youth charity millions of dollars. Two years ago, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America moved a block west —- from West Peachtree Street to Peachtree Street —- another strategic financial move.
Roxanne Spillett, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, remembers when the organization first moved to 1230 W. Peachtree St.
“When we walked into that building, we thought we would have enough space forever,” Spillett said. “What we didn’t know was that our movement would expand so much.”
As it grew, the organization had to convert its conference rooms and closets to offices and lease more space in buildings nearby, so its leaders began to review options to consolidate operations in one building.
“We wanted to be in one space and operate more efficiently. We wanted visibility. We wanted the ability to expand and contract,” Spillett said. “But we also wanted to stay in Atlanta. We feel like we are citizens of this city.”
Through a series of events, the Carter real estate building on Peachtree Street across from the Woodruff Arts Center became available. That building now houses the national organization, as well as the Southeast regional offices. As an added bonus, the organization leases out some space so the building is a revenue generator.
“The economics of the move illustrate our entrepreneurial thinking,” Spillett said.
In just two years, the move has saved the Boys & Girls Clubs $1.2 million in operations.
The timing of the move also was fortuitous. Because the national organization was founded in 1906, it celebrated its centennial the same year as its physical move to Peachtree Street.
The Boys & Girls Clubs launched a centennial capital campaign with a $200 million goal to expand the impact of the organization. (It actually ended up raising $227.6 million.) The building project was folded into that campaign.
And friends of the organization responded. Hays Clark, the one-time CEO of Avon who served on the board before his death, and his wife, Ros, gave $15 million toward the $23 million building project.
Another close friend is the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, which initially gave the Boys & Girls Clubs $2.5 million to buy its first Atlanta home in 1994.
“We wanted to make sure the welcome was warm in Atlanta,” said Pete McTier, who was president of the Woodruff Foundation at the time. “And when they ran out of space and had an interest in the Carter building, we gave $5 million to make sure they stayed in Atlanta.”
The Woodruff Foundation has been instrumental in helping other major national nonprofits relocate their headquarters to Atlanta. Similar gifts were given to CARE and the American Cancer Society.
Spillett says Atlanta has been an easy sell for the organization. The quality of life and lower cost of living have helped in recruiting top employees.
The organization has prospered since the move. Today it is the 15th-largest charity in the United States, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
“It’s one of our nation’s more successful organizations,” said McTier, who added that Coca-Cola mogul Robert Woodruff used to serve on the Boys & Girls Clubs board. “It is an organization that’s always had some of the top captains of business on its board.”
McTier says business leaders endorse the organization’s mission to provide safe and educational places for young people in underserved communities to go rather than learning “the rules of the street.”
The move to Atlanta also enabled the organization to “cultivate some very good relationships,” Spillett said. “Coca-Cola, the Woodruff Foundation, Turner Broadcasting, Macy’s South, Cox Communications and Cingular/AT&T. I’ve learned from the smartest people.”
Spillett, 59, who has been CEO since 1996, moved to Atlanta with the organization. Last year, her salary plus incentives totaled $521,274; and her compensation package also included benefits and a deferred retirement plan worth $424,936.
Spokeswoman Jan-Still Lindeman says Spillett’s compensation is set by the board and is based on a peer comparison with other nonprofits.
“Roxanne is one of the most outstanding nonprofit leaders in the country,” McTier said. “She knows her organization, she has strong management skills, and she has an extraordinarily good rapport with her staff. She has passion and compassion.”
If the past 14 years were about growth, Spillett wants the rest of her tenure as CEO to be about impact. The organization has installed about 2,000 technology centers in its clubs to close the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The organization also is expanding its reach beyond children to entire families.
Internally, the organization is training its future leaders through its new School of Executive Leadership. Part of the organization’s task will be training a successor for Spillett.
“When I leave here, I want to make sure our national organization is strong and our local organizations are strong. I want financial security for our movement,” Spillett said. “We do operate like a business, but we have a different bottom line. Our bottom line is how many lives did we save.”
A personal note: Toward the end of my interview with Roxanne Spillett, I asked about her life in Atlanta. She shared with me how happy she is that her son, her daughter-in-law and her baby grandson are living with her in her home. So I asked her what her son does. She told me he is a teacher at the Howard School. Only then did I realize that her son is coach Keith Spillett, who has been a mentor to my son for the past several years. I shared stories about how kind her son has been to my son and other students at Howard. Through tears, we mothers bonded over the bonding between our sons. It just shows that in the Spillett household, compassion is a family trait.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America Timeline
1860: Several women in Hartford, Conn., believe that boys should have a positive alternative to roaming the streets. This marks the beginning of Boys & Girls Clubs.
1906: Several Boys Clubs decide to affiliate, starting the nationwide movement with the Federated Boys Clubs of Boston.
1990: The national organization’s name is changed to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
1994: National headquarters moves from New York City to Atlanta.
1996: Roxanne Spillett becomes president of the BGCA. She is the first woman to head the organization.
2006: Marks the centennial year of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The headquarters also moves from West Peachtree Street to its new home on Peachtree Street.
—- Compiled by Nisa Asokan
Impact of Boys & Girls Clubs
Movement-wide (national plus local affiliates)
| 1994 (national headquarters moved to Atlanta) | 2008 |
| 2.2 million youths served | 4.8 million youths served* |
| 1,692 clubs | 4,314 clubs |
| 22,800 staff | 50,200 staff |
| 77,000 volunteers | 147,000 volunteers |
| $340 million revenues | $1.5 billion revenues |
Source: Boys & Girls Club of America
National nonprofits headquartered in Georgia
American Cancer Society, Atlanta
Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Atlanta
Habitat for Humanity International, Atlanta
National Christian Foundation, Atlanta
MAP International, Brunswick
CARE, Atlanta
Carter Center, Atlanta
Arthritis Foundation, Atlanta
Points of Light Institute, Atlanta
Source: Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2007
list: Prepared by Nisa Asokan, staff
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Linginfelter to join Regions Bank
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Starting Monday, Bill Linginfelter, former CEO of Wachovia-Georgia, is joining Regions Bank as the top executive in Atlanta and North Georgia.
This will permit Linginfelter to fulfill his wish to remain in Atlanta and to stay within the banking industry.
Linginfelter left Wachovia last fall after the North Carolina-based bank reorganized its corporate structure and eliminated the position of a Georgia president.
Regions, which is based in Birmingham, Ala., was founded in 1971 as First Alabama Bancshares, Alabama ‘s first multi-bank holding company.
Two recent mergers have greatly expanded the bank’s footprint. Four years ago, Regions acquired Memphis-based Union Planters Corp.; and in November, 2006, Regions merged with Birmingham-based AmSouth Bancorporation.
According to its website, Regions Financial Corp. is one of the top 10 bank holding firms in the country with about $140 billion in assets and nearly $100 billion in deposits.
Linginfelter has been an active civic player, serving on the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and as vice chairman of the Georgia Research Alliance. He also has had a number of other leadership roles at Atlanta’s United Way and with the Woodruff Arts Center.
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Downtown’s Robinson enthusiastic about museum
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After briefing the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s executive committee this morning, A.J. Robinson was enthusiastic about Gov. Sonny Perdue’s announcement of plans for the National Health Museum.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress. “It fits in with Atlanta being this new eclectic collection of assets. We have media with CNN, the Olympics and sports, the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola and the proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights. It builds on the strength of Atlanta as a place for attractions.”
CAP already is taking the lead in developing the Center for Civil and Human Rights, which is expected to cost at least $100 million. The Coca-Cola Co. already has offered a site for the center to be on the same block as the new World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium.
Robinson does not see that fund-raising for the National Health Museum taking away from the fund-raising effort of the Center for Civil and Human Rights.
“The financing for the health museum is ambitious,” Robinson said. “But there are national foundations, pharmaceutical companies and other health industry companies. And it’s going to require some public support.”
Robinson thought the health museum would “have any impact on” the civil rights center.
“It’s two totally different projects,” he said. “One is a project about what is unique about Atlanta and its history. The other is a national attraction. I think the timing is such that we are on track with the Center for Civil and Human Rights. The health museum is not going to impede our ability to raise money. We are out there already in full force raising money.”
Robinson said the announcement just reinforces the tremendous impact that Centennial Olympic Park has had on downtown.
“Look back to 1994,” he said. “We are beginning to really realize the potential that that Olympic gift has made to our city. We have had 60 acres of urban renewal. We have created a visitor profile that we can leverage. Today, the feasibility of a project is so much easier because of the number of people already coming to this area.”
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Raising metro Atlanta’s profile as a college town
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
University leaders in our region already recognize metro Atlanta’s potential as a college town.
Several believe we already have reached a critical mass when it comes to number of institutions, students, faculty, level of research and, with growing importance, an increasing level of cooperation between the region’s colleges and universities.
Still, this is a time of change as several longtime university presidents already have, or are soon to be, moving on.
What should this region do to promote itself as a college town? And what can this region do to take full advantage of the intellectual power that exists in our metro area?
Please let me hear from you.
For the full column….
Few people think of Atlanta as a college town, but Emory University President Jim Wagner hopes that’s beginning to change.
On July 1, Wagner will become chairman of the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE), which includes 19 public and private universities and colleges in metro Atlanta. He succeeds Lisa Rossbacher, president of the Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.
Others taking leadership positions at ARCHE are Beheruz Sethna, president of the University of West Georgia, as vice chair; and Dan Papp, president of Kennesaw State and College University, as treasurer.
“We are probably underrecognized as a college town,” Wagner said. “One of the great things ARCHE has done is explain the significance of higher education in different cities.”
ARCHE recently released a study that showed how the Atlanta region ranks among the 50 largest cities in the United States.
Among the highlights:
it’s seventh in the number of college students involved (176,171 full-time equivalent students);
it’s third in the number of African-American students (47,548 full-time equivalent students);
it’s seventh in degrees earned at the bachelor’s level or higher (35,802); and
it’s fifth in university research with $1.01 billion in higher education research spending.
But Wagner admitted he did not think of Atlanta as a college town when he took the job as Emory’s president nearly five years ago.
“I thought of it as having that potential,” Wagner said. “I confess sadly that I wasn’t aware (of the concentration of higher educational institutions in the region).”
Wagner, who believes that serving as chairman of ARCHE “is an important role at this moment in history,” hopes he will be able to help the public appreciate the value of colleges and universities in metro Atlanta.
Change in progress at important time
This is a critical juncture for the region’s universities.
Founded in 1938, ARCHE has gained a higher profile as the region’s major universities have grown in stature. But metro Atlanta is at a critical time as some of its top academic leaders have, or are about to, move on.
Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough left earlier this month to head the Smithsonian Institution. Georgia Tech Provost Gary Schuster has been named interim president.
Clark Atlanta University President Walter Broadnax has retired, and Clark Atlanta’s President-elect Carlton Brown (a former president of Savannah State University) attended his first meeting of the Georgia Research Alliance last week.
Georgia State University President Carl Patton, who has been in his role for 16 years, was supposed to retire this summer. But his departure date could be extended if the current search for a successor isn’t successful.
Patton told me earlier this week that to the extent he is wanted, he will stay on board until a new president is selected. “I think it should be in the near term, not the long term,” he said. “We are not talking about another year.”
In recent years, several other university presidents also have moved on: Morehouse College’s Walter Massey (a post now filled by Robert Franklin); Kennesaw’s Betty Siegel (now Papp); Mercer University’s Kirby Godsey (now Bill Underwood); Morehouse School of Medicine’s James Gavin (now John E. Maupin); and Agnes Scott’s Mary Brown Bullock (now Elizabeth Kiss).
But ARCHE President Mike Gerber said the region has always thrived with new academic leadership.
“Atlanta has a strong history of attracting extraordinarily qualified people to be presidents of its universities,” Gerber said. “We have lost some really great presidents due to retirement and other opportunities. But I think we have been successful in recruiting some really strong replacements.”
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Wagner wants to raise higher education’s profile
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Few people think of Atlanta as a college town, but Emory University President Jim Wagner hopes that’s beginning to change.
On July 1, Wagner will become chairman of the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE), which includes 19 public and private universities and colleges in metro Atlanta. He succeeds Lisa Rossbacher, president of the Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.
Others taking leadership positions at ARCHE are Beheruz Sethna, president of the University of West Georgia, as vice chair; and Dan Papp, president of Kennesaw State and College University, as treasurer.
“We are probably underrecognized as a college town,” Wagner said. “One of the great things ARCHE has done is explain the significance of higher education in different cities.”
ARCHE recently released a study that showed how the Atlanta region ranks among the 50 largest cities in the United States.
Among the highlights:
it’s seventh in the number of college students involved (176,171 full-time equivalent students);
it’s third in the number of African-American students (47,548 full-time equivalent students);
it’s seventh in degrees earned at the bachelor’s level or higher (35,802); and
it’s fifth in university research with $1.01 billion in higher education research spending.
But Wagner admitted he did not think of Atlanta as a college town when he took the job as Emory’s president nearly five years ago.
“I thought of it as having that potential,” Wagner said. “I confess sadly that I wasn’t aware (of the concentration of higher educational institutions in the region).”
Wagner, who believes that serving as chairman of ARCHE “is an important role at this moment in history,” hopes he will be able to help the public appreciate the value of colleges and universities in metro Atlanta.
Change in progress at important time
This is a critical juncture for the region’s universities.
Founded in 1938, ARCHE has gained a higher profile as the region’s major universities have grown in stature. But metro Atlanta is at a critical time as some of its top academic leaders have, or are about to, move on.
Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough left earlier this month to head the Smithsonian Institution. Georgia Tech Provost Gary Schuster has been named interim president.
Clark Atlanta University President Walter Broadnax has retired, and Clark Atlanta’s President-elect Carlton Brown (a former president of Savannah State University) attended his first meeting of the Georgia Research Alliance last week.
Georgia State University President Carl Patton, who has been in his role for 16 years, was supposed to retire this summer. But his departure date could be extended if the current search for a successor isn’t successful.
Patton told me earlier this week that to the extent he is wanted, he will stay on board until a new president is selected. “I think it should be in the near term, not the long term,” he said. “We are not talking about another year.”
In recent years, several other university presidents also have moved on: Morehouse College’s Walter Massey (a post now filled by Robert Franklin); Kennesaw’s Betty Siegel (now Papp); Mercer University’s Kirby Godsey (now Bill Underwood); Morehouse School of Medicine’s James Gavin (now John E. Maupin); and Agnes Scott’s Mary Brown Bullock (now Elizabeth Kiss).
But ARCHE President Mike Gerber said the region has always thrived with new academic leadership.
“Atlanta has a strong history of attracting extraordinarily qualified people to be presidents of its universities,” Gerber said. “We have lost some really great presidents due to retirement and other opportunities. But I think we have been successful in recruiting some really strong replacements.”
Chamber drive on for more members
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has kicked off its annual membership campaign —- once again stretching its goals. The campaign, which will be led by Georgia Power President Mike Garrett, has a $1.8 million goal with 800 new members. Garrett will be chairman of the statewide business organization in 2009.
Chamber leaders hope the organization will continue to grow. Last year’s campaign goal was $1.75 million and 700 new members. The campaign raised $1.76 million brought in 819 new members. The chamber currently has about 4,000 members in 156 of Georgia’s 159 counties.
The three counties that don’t have members are Glascock, Quitman and Webster. Since last year, the chamber was able to add members in Clay and Oglethorpe counties.
msaporta@ajc.com
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Mayor Franklin makes case for TAD amendment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The event was the annual Urban Design Commission awards Thursday evening.
The place was the new Hilton Garden Inn along Luckie Street across from the Georgia Aquarium.
After the ceremony, developer David Marvin took Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin to the hotel’s spectacular top level with floor-to-ceiling windows and an outdoor plaza overlooking the aquarium, the new World of Coca-Cola and Centennial Olympic Park.
(Marvin envisions that space becoming an upscale restaurant and bar. The hotel also has a helicopter pad on its roof).
The mayor asked Marvin whether he received financing from the Tax Allocation District in the area. TADs allow communities to help spark the redevelopment in an area by leveraging potential property tax increases for a number of years.
Atlanta’s TAD for the Beltline suffered a legal loss earlier this year when courts ruled that taxes for public schools could not be part of that TAD. The Georgia General Assembly agreed to put that issue as a constitutional amendment before voters in November.
“Before TAD financing, this wasn’t possible,” Marvin told the mayor. The Hilton Garden Hotel received $4.4 million in TAD dollars to help finance that development.
To reinforce her point, Franklin surveyed the view and began ticking off all the developments that had received TAD financing: The World of Coca-Cola, the Museum Tower, the Ernst & Young high rise, Centennial Towers among others.
She also identified several other projects that received some kind of public financing to become reality, such as Centennial Place and Centennial Olympic Park.
Franklin then asked a group of observers whether they remembered how the area looked before the 1996 Summer Olympics. The view then included Techwood Homes, a bunch of surface parking lots and vacant non-descript buildings.
“There’s been a transformation,” Franklin said of that part of downtown. “You come here now and think this is a community that doesn’t need stimulus to develop. But if you walk through here, you can’t make a case that this would have happened in 10 years without the TAD financing. It would have taken 30 or 40 years for this area to develop.”
And to reinforce her point about the proposed constitutional amendment: “I’m voting ‘yes’ in November.”
An addendum:
After she left the event (to go to a Neighborhood Planning Unit meeting), Mayor Franklin sent me an email from home at 11:47 p.m. to share some more thoughts.
Here are excerpts from her email (minus a couple of typos plus people’s first names):
A few additional thoughts:
This latest investment makes real the promise of Centennial Olympic Park as a catalyst for downtown investment, creation of new jobs and economic vitality for the inner city.
Billy Payne, Zell Miller, Bill Campbell, Bill Dahlberg, Sherm Day, Dan Graveline, Atlanta Chamber and others believed it could happen, took risk of the investment of public and private dollars.
And now the energy from the gift of Bernie Marcus, AHA//Renee Glover/Marvin Arrington and Egbert Perry, World of Coca-Cola, GWCC expansion, hotels and condos make real the dream.
Look backward 20 years, then 10, and then look forward 10 years with multi-modal (station) and commuter rail and bus interconnectivity, Beltline and streetcar. Dozens of leaders have pitched in, led and collaborated to accomplish as much as we have.
More to come, financial support from state is more likely now.
Sorry to bother u.
SF
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John Knapp leaving Atlanta for Birmingham
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta native John Knapp, founder and director of the Southern Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility, is joining the faculty of Samford University in Birmingham starting July 1.
Knapp will become the Mann Family Professor of Ethics and Leadership and serve as director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership. Marvin Mann, founder of the Lexmark Inc. and an alum of Samford, founded the center in honor of his late wife.
“I wasn’t looking, but this opportunity came up,” Knapp told me today. He added that the timing of this opportunity worked well. “My work here has reached a stage where I can step away and start something new.”
Knapp, who has five children with the oldest at Georgia State, said the move will be a big change. But, despite the views that most Atlantans have of the Alabama city, he said he’s been impressed with Birmingham. “They have remade that city,” he said.
Knapp has served as director of the center for more than 15 years, forging relationships with some of the top executives and companies in the state. The center recently merged with Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College College of Business.
Stepping into Knapp’s role will be Steve Olson, associate director of the center who was a fellow co-founder of the organization.
“For that reason I have never been more enthusiastic about the future of the center,” Knapp wrote friends in an email announcing his new contact information.
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Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce names new president and CEO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tisha Tallman, who served as the Southeast regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, has been named to be the new president and CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Tallman, who will take on her new role on July 14, will fill the spot that has been vacant since January when Sara Gonzalez, the long time executive of the chamber, died unexpectedly.
Gabriel Vaca, the board chairman of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement, that Tallman’s background in the private, public and academic sectors would give her a strong foundation for leadership in the organization. Vaca added that Tallman will become a “strategic leader in Georgia’s economic development.”
Besides her role at the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Tallman has practiced law for more than 15 years. She served in the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. More recently, she served as a partner at Morgan & Morgan law firm.
She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science as well as her law degree from the University of Iowa.
The search firm of Aldebaran Associates worked with the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to help identify Tallman for this position.
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Sen. Isakson chats with local business leaders
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a far-ranging luncheon chat at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce today, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) urged for more transparency on Wall Street and in the investment banking industry — particularly when it comes to financing for the housing industry.
Calling the U.S. banking industry the “best in the world” because of accountability and transparency, Isakson said the same rules should apply to the investment banking industry.
“Wall Street is not transparent,” Isakson said. “There needs to be some real transparency in investment banking.”
Isakson said he was going to be meeting with a couple of senators in the morning to talk about possible new housing legislation. Isakson also agreed with Richard Dorfman, head of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, who said the problem was in arranging for short-term credit for the housing industry.
Then Isakson, who made his living in real estate at Northside Realty, offered some perspective.
“I went through four real estate recessions,” Isakson said. “All of them ended, and this one will too.”
Isakson also was asked about immigration reform. “The biggest political disaster that I’ve every seen in my life was the immigration bill of two years ago,” Isakson said.
Then he offered a template for reform. First secure the borders between the United States and Mexico. And then permit experts from other countries to work in the United States when no Americans can fill particular jobs. The number of visas could fluctuate with the level of unemployment in the United States. In other words, more visas would be allowed during periods of full employment.
Isakson also said the problem of illegal immigration could be solved if we adopted biometric and secure IDs for everyone. Finger prints or retina scans as part of a national database could go a long way to eliminating forgery.
Isakson also spoke about the value of earmarks, the need for water conservation, the hope to get Democrats and Republicans working together on a national energy plan, No Child Left Behind, his belief in international diplomacy as long as enemies know we’ll eventually “enforce right versus wrong,” and on his close relationship to U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) with whom he has dinner with at least once a week.
But one of the most personal thoughts he shared were his six lessons for successful lives.
- Learning is a life-long endeavor;
- You don’t get anywhere if you don’t respect everybody;
- Be ethical and leave something on the table for everyone;
- Love everybody;
- Have a deep and abiding faith; and
- Always dream.
Isakson, who celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary on Sunday, skirted around question on any personal dreams he might have to run for governor. Officially, Isakson has said he intends to run for re-election to his Senate seat.
International business leader George Novack asked Isakson if he would be able to vote for the senator as a potential gubernatorial candidate.
“You are going to have a chance to vote for me,” Isakson told Novack. “And I hope to be re-elected to the U.S. Senate.”
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Will Georgians support commuter rail?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many were surprised, and delighted, when Gov. Sonny Perdue announced his support last week for a pilot commuter rail line between Atlanta and Lovejoy and on to Griffin.
Perdue also announced an investment of another $13 million to buy more coaches to provide additional service to the state’s X-Press bus system.
Georgia, especially metro Atlanta, is in dire need to improve its mobility, be it through buses, trains, light rail, bicycle paths, HOV lanes and road improvements.
What are your thoughts about the governor’s announcement to support more transit in the Atlanta region?
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At last, Gov. Perdue on board for commuter rail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What an amazing change.
After six years of inaction on transit, Gov. Sonny Perdue surprised the state when he pledged his full support for a pilot commuter rail line from Atlanta to Lovejoy and Griffin, as well as for a substantial increase in the state’s X-Press bus program.
So what happened? Why did the governor do a complete 180 and decide to take a leadership role on an issue that has been driving some people crazy?
That issue is traffic. That issue is a lack of state funding for transit. That issue is the limited options people have to get around in our region and state other than in a car.
Those are not new issues. Leaders in metro Atlanta have been pushing for transportation solutions, including commuter rail, for decades.
Until now, no amount of begging or pleading seemed to get Gov. Perdue’s attention, much less his leadership.
Yet, last Thursday, there was the governor holding a news conference with all the transportation players in his office, speaking words that regional and state leaders have wanted to hear throughout his administration.
“Let’s move out aggressively,” Perdue said. “Once I’ve made up my mind, I’m usually impatient.”
Why now?
The theories are numerous:
The arrival of $4 a gallon gas has been a tipping point for people to get out of their cars and seek whatever limited transit options exist;
The Get Georgia Moving Coalition, a powerful group of 60 entities statewide, exerting all its influence to make sure state leaders support new transportation funding;
The governor’s comfort level in the appointments of new state transportation leaders — Gena Abraham at the Georgia Department of Transportation and Dick Anderson at the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority;
Several strong DOT board members from outside the metro area who were laying out a business case for commuter rail, including Larry Walker and Bill Kulke;
The lack of leadership at the General Assembly, which led to political infighting and defeat of a bill that would have permitted regions to pass their own transportation funding proposals;
A commuter rail proposal for trains between Atlanta and Lovejoy that already had received federal funds and tentative support from the Norfolk-Southern railroad.
Those are all plausible theories that are not mutually exclusive.
But there are stories of key events that helped change the mindset of the governor and other state leaders.
In January, GDOT board members and other state transportation folks took a trip to Chicago, Boston and New York to see commuter rail in action.
On that trip, Kulke told fellow DOT board member Robert Brown: “We are 100 years behind.”
In March, the Transit Planning Board invited a group of regional leaders on a trip to Charlotte to see that city’s successful light rail projects.
The trip made an impression on many, including Anderson who was then newly appointed as GRTA’s executive director.
And in early May, the annual LINK trip — with more than 100 state and regional leaders — went to Denver, a city aggressively building transit throughout its metro area with funding from a sales tax passed by voters.
“Going there just after the defeat (of the transportation funding bill) made everybody more aware of what we could do if that bill had passed,” said attorney Doug Dillard. “Denver provided a model for us to take a regional approach on transportation solutions.”
The LINK delegation decided to take action. Last Wednesday, it passed a strongly worded resolution urging state leaders to “pass comprehensive transportation funding legislation to effectively address traffic congestion and additional transit.”
But the event that may have made the greatest difference happened about two months ago when Perdue stopped by the congressional office of U.S. Rep. David Scott, a Democrat who had served in the legislature with the governor.
The federal government years ago approved nearly $90 million for the Atlanta-Lovejoy commuter rail line, but the state had failed to move that project forward.
So now it was time for some straight talk.
“I told the governor, ‘Only you can move it forward at this point. If we don’t move it forward, it puts us in a difficult position,’ ” Scott said.
He said Georgia had “almost become a laughing stock” in Congress.
Given the traffic problems in metro Atlanta, the inaction by the state bewildered Scott’s colleagues in Congress who would have done anything to get that amount of federal funding for commuter rail.
“I told him, ‘If we don’t use it, we lose it,’ ” Scott said. He also explained that not drawing those federal dollars for commuter rail hurt Georgia’s ability to get funding for other transportation projects.
Scott said he also told Perdue this was his opportunity to create a legacy and help make Georgia a national leader on commuter rail.
He said the line would revitalize the corridor from Atlanta through Clayton County on to Griffin, reduce congestion and improve air quality.
“When he left my office, he told me, ‘David, I’m going to see what we can do as a result of our conversation,’ ” Scott said. “He left with a very good understanding of the issue.”
Maybe that was the moment Perdue decided he would finally take action to support commuter rail and more transit.
Maybe Perdue finally understood the true benefits.
He said at his news conference he was particularly impressed when he saw a graphic showing that one bus could remove 57 cars from our roads (those numbers are much higher for rail).
Maybe, as DOT board member Robert Brown said, it was a just confluence of events that came together “at the right time.”
Perhaps.
(I had hoped for this kind of leadership years ago, but it’s better to be late than never).
At long last, we finally are making tracks towards the future.
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Georgia Research Alliance OKs new venture fund
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Research Alliance, a public-private organization working to develop the state’s technological prowess, today agreed to launch a new fund to help finance promising new companies.
The GRA Venture Fund, which already has received a $7.5 million appropriation from the state legislature, will now seek private investors to meet the required 3-to-1 match. The goal is to raise $22.5 million by the end of the year from investors interested in supporting the development of technology in the state.
At the GRA meeting, several board members agreed to support the fund. Mike Adams, president of the University of Georgia, said his institution was willing to contribute $1 million to the effort.
Businessman Fred Cooper, who has been leading the effort to create the new fund, said he would give $500,000 and would seek other investors at that level. Jim Balloun, who helped establish the alliance 18 years ago, pledged to give $500,000. And developer Tom Cousins, who was an early chairman of GRA, pledged his support.
The GRA Venture Fund also has some other amenities for investors. The Georgia legislature also approved a 25 percent state income tax credit for private investors in the fund.
The fund will be invested primarily in start-up companies that have ownership, license or other rights to technology developed at Georgia’s six research institutions. The firms also would have had to have participated in GRA’s VentureLab commercialization program, which seeks promising new technologies that could have commercial appeal.
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Developer Cousins to get quality growth award
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of Atlanta’s key city builders — Tom Cousins — will receive the prestigious Four Pillar Award from the Council for Quality Growth at a special gala on Oct. 2.
Tom Cousins, who founded Cousins Properties 50 years ago, has developed some of the city’s best known landmarks, including the 191 building, the Bank of America Plaza, the Wildwood Office Park, the first phase of the Georgia World Congress Center, CNN Center and the now demolished Omni Coliseum, among others.
Cousins is also known for his philanthropic contributions including the restoration of the East Lake Golf Club and the redevelopment of the East Lake community. He also has been a key player in countless civic organizations, including the Georgia Research Alliance, the University of Georgia, the Woodruff Arts Center, Central Atlanta Progress and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
The Council for Quality Growth awards the tribute to an individual who meets these four pillars: “Quality, Responsibility, Vision and Integrity.” The gala will be held in the Tom Murphy Ballroom at the GWCC.
Among previous winners: Post Properties founder John A. Williams, homebuilder John Wieland, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, the late Gov. George Busbee and developers: Wayne Mason, Jim Cowart and Ray Weeks.
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ACA’s Ellen Meyer becoming president of the arts college in Nashville
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nashville-based Watkins College of Arts & Sciences has named Atlantan Ellen Meyer as its new president.
At Watkins College, Meyer will succeed Dr. Jim Brooks, who is retiring. She will begin her tenure as president on Aug. 1 of the institution, the only independent college in Tennessee that offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Film, Fine Arts, Interior Design, Graphic Design, and Photography.
Meyer had been president of the prestigious 100-year-old Atlanta College of Art, once a division of the Woodruff Arts Center, for 14 years. But in 2005, ACA announced an agreement to be acquired by the Savannah College of Art and Design, which had opened an Atlanta campus. ACA ended up closing its doors in 2006.
During her time at ACA, Meyer oversaw a $15 million expansion of the college’s facilities including the building of a new dorm, and she initiated a $4 million technology campaign for arts and design education.
Meyer has had a long history in the arts world. Before becoming president of ACA, Meyer had served as director of continuing education and special programs at Rhode Island School of Design, vice president of marketing and extension at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, consultant to the National Building Museum, Washington, DC, and director of a ceramics program for the National Park Service.
Meyer left me a voice mail message telling me of her new post at Watkins saying: “I’m thrilled.”
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National Museum of Patriotism to move from Midtown to downtown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A unique Atlanta attraction — the National Museum of Patriotism — is moving from its Midtown location on Spring Street to a prime downtown location.
The museum has reached an agreement with Legacy Partners and Richard Bowers & Co. to occupy space at the 275 Baker St. N.W. building near several other key attractions, including the Georgia Aquarium, the new World of Coca-Cola and CNN Center.
The museum will occupy part of the ground floor of the Hilton Garden Inn right in the middle of Atlanta’s emerging tourism district. The museum is expected to open later this fall.
The founder and president of the museum Nick Snider, a retired senior vice president of UPS and a former commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. The museum has been trying to relocate downtown for years to increase tourism traffic to its attraction.
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AGL’s Somerhalder enthusiastic about campaign
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John Somerhalder, CEO of AGL Resources, is jumping on Atlanta’s United Way leadership train by agreeing to run the time-consuming campaign in 2009.
“I have been a supporter of United Way, starting in Houston with El Paso Corp., for a number of years,” Somerhalder wrote to me in an email confirming that he had agreed on the leadership role. “The Atlanta United Way is very well run as well in my opinion. I think it is one of the most important things we can do each year, individually and importantly as a company and a group of employees.”
AGL leaders have a tradition of supporting United Way. The former CEO, Paula Rosput Reynolds, chaired the campaign in 2002 and served as board chair from mid-2005 to mid-2006. Reynolds moved to Seattle during her tenure as board chair to become CEO of Safeco insurance company.
Somerhalder, who was named AGL’s CEO in March 2006, said AGL Resources’ employees have shown their “Generosity of Spirit” during previous United Way campaigns.
Somerhalder said his willingness to serve as campaign chair in 2009 is a logical next step “to continue our commitment to United Way and to our communities. The needs are certainly not decreasing each year.”
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United Way president praises Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s United Way marked its annual meeting Wednesday with reflection and anticipation.
President Milton Little reflected on his first year (the actual anniversary will be July 12) as head of the organization. He also talked about how United Way across the nation is launching a new brand: Live United.
Among the other changes: Tim Bentsen, KPMG’s Southeast managing partner, is taking over as chairman of the United Way board, succeeding IBM’s senior executive in Georgia, Lee Torrence.
Then there’s Atlanta’s United Way campaign —- the largest annual community fund-raising effort in metro Atlanta.
The leadership for the campaign is now set for the next two years.
Ed Heys, a partner with Deloitte, will chair the campaign for 2008, when he will try to meet and exceed the 2007 campaign led by Georgia Power’s Mike Garrett, which raised $81.2 million.
Heys said the campaign cabinet is just getting started but the response so far has been positive. Heys already has gone on a few CEO calls, and he has been encouraged by those visits.
Following Heys as campaign chair will be John Somerhalder, CEO of AGL Resources, who accepted that job in March 2006 and moved to Atlanta.
Moving to Atlanta is an experience he can share with Little.
Little said he feels “extraordinarily lucky” to have come to Atlanta from Boston. (Little did graduate from Morehouse College, so he was familiar with Atlanta.)
“Atlanta is a United Way town,” Little said. “Leaders challenge the organization to be better and better and have a greater impact.”
Little said he knew Atlanta’s United Way had a great reputation with a strong tradition of effectiveness. But he also recognized the challenges. Metro Atlanta has attracted job seekers, but those who are not successful may end up homeless.
“People recognize that in tough times, the situation is difficult and dire for those most at risk,” said Little, who has been pleased that the community is responding to those needs. “I see firsthand the generosity and care of this community and its support of United Way.”
During his talk, Little reflected on the 40th anniversaries of the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. So many people were inspired by their messages of serving the community.
“Atlanta is recognized as a vibrant laboratory for philanthropic opportunities and volunteerism,” Little said.
United Way’s new “Live United” theme also has a good local fit. “It is the concept that we are all interconnected,” Little said. “What good we do for one is good that is done for all.”
Theological fund fits Atlanta well
Ten years ago, a national nonprofit organization moved to Atlanta that heralds the city’s unique role of combining religion and social justice.
The Fund for Theological Education, housed at Emory University, has awarded $16 million in fellowships to 1,500 students in the past decade. It will celebrate its 10 years in Atlanta on Friday at a “Next Generation Leaders” event.
“Since it has come to Atlanta, it has really taken off,” said Jim Laney, a former president of Emory University who has been involved with the fund. He said the fund helps encourage and enable promising young people to enter the ministry and serve their community.
“It’s extraordinarily worthwhile,” Laney said, adding that Atlanta has several role models, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, among others. One of the founding trustees in the 1950s was Benjamin E. Mays, a former president of Morehouse College.
Among FTE’s alumni with Atlanta ties: Morehouse President Robert Franklin, Roberto Goizueta III (son of the late Coca-Cola chief) and Michael Battle, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center.
The national fund also has two Atlanta trustees: home builder John Wieland and community leader Florida Ellis.
Musician active in policy-making
Could we have a rock ‘n’ roller in the governor’s mansion?
Chuck Leavell, a Georgia tree farmer, also plays keyboard for the Rolling Stones.
So when he was in Atlanta last week to introduce the Stones’ film “Shine the Light” at the Fox Theatre, I asked Leavell if he’s given the idea more serious thought.
“I still enjoy engaging in policy-making,” said Leavell, who is working with Gov. Sonny Perdue on conservation efforts
“I’m still a musician and still making records. But who knows what the Stones will do in the next couple of years? If I had to make a decision between going on a Stones tour or running for governor, it would be a tough choice. One of those pays a lot better than the other.”
Leavell, a registered Democrat, said he has been able to work with leaders from both parties. “I tend to vote more for the person than the party,” said Leavell, who said if he decides to enter politics, he would focus on environmental and educational issues.
Friendly warning to Charlotte
Former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, who is now president of the Buckhead Coalition, was invited to Charlotte this week to talk to its chamber of commerce on how to make its SouthPark mall as well known as Lenox Square.
Both properties are owned by the Simon Property Group.
Despite Charlotte often being viewed as a competitor to Atlanta, Massell extended an invitation to create a “Sister Communities Program” between SouthPark and Buckhead so they could exchange ideas.
But Massell warned: “I’m competitive and protective, and I’ll never let you catch us.”
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Ties to China growing but still challenging
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia companies are taking notice of the opportunities in China fueled by the upcoming Beijing Olympics and the growing Chinese market.
A panel of local leaders Tuesday discussed those ties, but offered caution of doing business in the country with the largest population in the world.
Sam Williams, formerly with the Portman Cos. and now president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, remembered when the architect/developer entered the Chinese market in the 1980s with a major project in Shanghai.
“There was no treaty or legal protocols between our two countries,” Williams said during a panel discussion at the Commerce Club on the Georgia-China connection. “You couldn’t file a legal mortgage in China.”
Mason Cargill, a partner with Jones Day, actually helped represent the Portman interests in China in the 1980s, and he has continued his work in international ever since.
“It’s much easier for an American company to do business in China today than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago,: Cargill said, adding that now China has been producing lots of lawyers. But Cargill cautioned: “For small companies, China is a difficult place to do business.” Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said the state now has a trade office in Beijing, and that Georgia exports to China increased 47 percent between 2006 and 2007.
Other ties: Delta now has the right to fly directly to Shanghai. The merger with Northwest will provide other connections to China. Leaders are trying to get the Chinese government to open a consulate in Atlanta. Several Chinese companies have announced investments in Georgia. And Georgia’s ports now have 23 all-sea routes from Asia.
Gary Black, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, said the state’s biggest industry (agriculture) already has been exploring business ties with China. “We have some quality opportunities of what we can produce here in Georgia,” Black said.
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Neal Purcell honored by Atlanta Rotary Club
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To his total surprise, Neal Purcell was awarded the Atlanta Rotary Club’s prestigious Ivan Allen Sr. award on Monday.
According to Dick Stormont, this year’s president of the club, is given to the “Rotarian “who has done the most for the club in the past year.”
Purcell, a retired national vice chairman of KPMG and a former Atlanta Rotary president, was on the dias to introduce visiting Rotarians and guests as well as share a couple of jokes.
He clearly had no idea he was about to receive the award named for one of the original founders of the club (and the father of the late Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.) until Stormont began reading off his bio.
Purcell didn’t even notice that his wife, Martha, had slipped into the lunch to see him receive the award. She was shielded by fellow Rotarian George Sands, also a retired KPMG executive, who helped orchestrate the surprise.
When the keynote speaker, Gov. Sonny Perdue, began his talk, he referred to Purcell by saying he had never known that an accountant could be funny.
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Photos of Weatherford Place: a solar community in Roswell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those who are interested, here are photos of the solar community that’s being built in in the city of Roswell.
The first photo (left to right) is of Denise Donahue, Simone du Boise and Dan Downey, all business partners in Weatherford Place.
The other photos show the first home that’s been built with a focus on some of the detail.
When complete, the development will have eight solar, net-zero-energy homes on 1.6 acres of land. Roughly a third of the site will be preserved as green space.
Photos by Frank Niemeir, AJC photographer
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Perdue has transportation problems on his mind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue spoke of the need to have an “action plan” for transportation improvements at a luncheon speech today at the Atlanta Rotary Club.
In fact, he unveiled a catchy name for his yet-to-be-released transportation initiative — I.T. 3 (to the third degree). That stands for “Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportation Today.”
Perdue said he would be meeting with members of the Georgia Board of Transportation later this week to talk about a “new partnership” between the various agencies and “what we can accomplish together.”
But the governor did not unveil any details of what that transportation plan might be.
Perdue, however, did say he was optimistic about Georgia’s future as an international hub. He said traffic through Georgia’s ports is experiencing dramatic increases, which calls for better transportation in and out of Savannah and Brunswick.
“We don’t have any choice of developing a strong transportation infrastructure in the future,” Perdue said.
Later Perdue told me that the state is conducting a freight and logistics study. “Both rail and roads are becoming congested,” the governor said.
During the question-and-answer period, one Rotarian asked Perdue specifically about metro Atlanta’s transportation needs.
Perdue said he had passed the Fast Forward transportation program that doubled transportation spending, but that “our delivery method was ineffective in delivering that.”
He said that’s why the new governance at GDOT with Commissioner Gena Abraham at the helm has been so important in restructuring the funding and implementation of projects.
“We are not done with the bad news over there,” Perdue said of GDOT.
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Home Depot’s Blake finds Atlanta an easy sell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Compared to other places he’s lived and worked, Home Depot CEO Frank Blake finds it easy to recruit people to move to Atlanta.
“Recruiting for Atlanta is easy,” Blake said in an AJC editorial boarding meeting this morning. “I have not had a person yet where moving to Atlanta is an issue.”
Some might mention traffic problems, but Blake will then mention Boston, New York or Washington D.C., cities where there are bridges you need to cross.
Blake also is impressed with the working relationship between local governments and the business community. He serves on the board of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a blue-ribbon panel of business leaders who help advise Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin on her key initiatives.
“The business community and political community sit down and talk about challenges facing the region,” Blake said, adding that executives are asked: “What do you think you need to attract jobs. I’ve seen it more in the Atlanta area (than in other places he’s lived, such as upstate New York).
Blake also repeated one of his favorite quotes, which he said holds great truth on a personal and professional level. “If your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near.”
For Home Depot, that means looking forward. And he’s relied on two of the founders — Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank — to help spread that forward-looking message.
“Both Bernie and Arthur, every time they go into a store, they tell store managers and associates: ‘This is not a trip down memory lane. Your best times are ahead of you,’” Blake said. “The organization has to believe that. “
But that doesn’t mean Blake has turned his back to the company’s origins — including the creed that Marcus and Blank (who he called “phenomenal”) practiced for Home Depot’s first 25 years in business.
“Reconnecting to our culture is a critical part of our future,” Blake said. “It’s more reconnecting with that culture and showing it’s continuing relevance to our company.”
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Creating incentives to build green communities
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many states around the country offer builders and homeowners incentives to install solar energy panels in homes and developments.
Georgia, however, is not among them.
So it takes an extraordinary dedication to the environment for developers and homeowners to install solar energy devices.
That’s the story of Weatherford Place, a community being built in the city of Roswell. Read more …
Should the state of Georgia and/or Georgia Power provide incentives to promote greater use of solar energy in our region?
Let me hear from you.
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Roswell residences a new definition for a green, solar community
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Weatherford Place in Roswell is not your usual residential community under construction.
For one thing, there are no Dumpsters on the site. There’s no need because nearly all the excess construction waste is put back to use.
From top to bottom, inside and out, Weatherford Place is developing a new definition for a green residential community. It eventually will have eight homes on 1.6 acres of land bordering Crossville Creek.
The three visionaries behind the development call it a “solar community of net-zero energy homes,” built to the greenest building standards. They call their home designs EcoCraft: designed and built to nature’s code.
“This is the first of its kind,” says Simone du Boise, an architect specializing in environmental design. “There’s not another neighborhood like this.”
Each home is designed to a platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) level and the entire development will be platinum LEED —- the first in the United States, according to business partner Dan Downey.
But it’s the solar power that really sets the development apart.
“Think of each one of these homes as a little power plant,” du Boise says. She explains that the solar energy generated immediately gets put on the power grid. Georgia Power credits each home for the power it generates, and du Boise says design specifications show that each home will generate more power than it needs —- which is how they become net-zero energy homes.
“This home will use two-thirds less energy than the typical home,” Downey says. “We are using the heat generated from the solar panels to heat the water.”
One house, already purchased by an investor, has been built as a model for how the other seven homes will work. Attention was given to every detail: the location of the windows, the wood used, the carpet, the paint, the fixtures (both light and plumbing), the 1,880 gallon cistern placed underground to capture rainwater, and even a manually-operated dumbwaiter to help move groceries, meals, laundry, suitcases and other stuff from floor to floor. The list is endless.
The third visionary behind Weatherford is designer Denise Donahue. She has integrated the project’s themes and philosophy at every level.
For example, there was a “ground blessing” instead of a groundbreaking, held on the summer solstice last summer —- the day with the most light.
The first part of the development was to restore one-third of the land to green space. Workers also stabilized the embankment next to Crossville Creek to prevent runoff of dirt and containments.
Other features include a community gazebo, a back-up generator for the neighborhood in case all the power goes out and a garden overlooking the creek.
Each home will be a living laboratory, equipped with monitors and sensors to track how environmentally friendly these homes will be. Developers are partnering with Georgia Power and Kennesaw State University to collect information for energy management and efficiency studies.
Donahue, du Boise and Downey are nontraditional in another way. Their company is called Cadmus Construction, but it actually is a one-stop shop of architectural design, landscape, construction and development.
“We take ownership of doing everything to ensure the integrity of the project,” Donahue says. “We don’t think the world needs another developer or builder or general contractor or even another architect. We think the world needs environmental stewards.”
These homes are on the market for about $750,000 each and have 2,500 to 3,900 square feet if a homeowner desires a finished basement. According to Downey, the first home already has been appraised at $1 million.
“We are trying to prove that you can profitably build a state-of-the-art green home and sell it at market price,” Downey says.
“We really do believe we can do these homes for the low-income, affordable homes so people don’t have to make a choice of heat or eat,” du Boise adds.
“We’d like to start a non-profit organization to do affordable homes,” says Donahue, looking to the future.
The project is named after Louis Weatherford, who originally owned the property. He was a gardener/farmer who annually would recycle seeds from vegetables and fruit he grew.
Every homeowner will receive a bag of seeds from Weatherford’s garden to continue the cycle of life. The gazebo is in memory of Weatherford’s late wife, Cora, who had always wanted one. It’s built partly with wood from the barn that used to be on the property.
Donahue says every homeowner automatically will become lifetime members of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (she’s on its board).
Clearly, du Boise, Donahue and Downey have put their hearts and souls into this project. As du Boise said: “Right now, we have put everything we have into this.”
Donahue says Weatherford Place is the culmination of their careers.
“When you believe in something, you risk everything,” Donahue says. “This is the beginning of a movement. It’s about making something good happen in the world.”
For more information, go to www.weatherfordplace.com.
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Woodruff Center passes corporate campaign goal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Woodruff Arts Center received some last minute donations, which enabled the corporate campaign to surpass its record $8.7 million by $175,000.
Beauchamp Carr, the center’s executive vice president who organizes the annual campaign, couldn’t have been more pleased. This was a particularly trying year because they only had 10 months rather than 12 to raise the money.
As Carr emailed me: “God bless the challenge fund raised by Tommy Holder and Veronica Biggins.” The challenge fund matches any new dollars that donors give to the campaign.
• Read last week’s original campaign story
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Could there be a ‘Run Johnny Run’ campaign?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few weeks back, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) let it be known rather definitively that he would not be running for governor the next time around.
Up until that moment, he had been viewed as the top choice of many Georgians, particularly those in metro Atlanta’s business community.
So when Isakson declared his intent to run for re-election for the U.S. Senate, that news disappointed many.
But could Isakson change his mind? After all, the next gubernatorial election will be more than two years from now.
We were on the phone Wednesday, and I told Isakson that I had heard there was a chance he might change his mind.
Here is his answer, word for word.
“It was a tough decision,” Isakson said. “The Senate is a great place to be. For right now, I’m happy doing what I’m doing.”
Do the words: “for right now” show a crack in the door?
You tell me.
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Manheim turns black water to clear water as part of green initiative
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At its plant in south Fulton County, Manheim publicly unveiled this morning its state-of-the-art system to clean and conserve the water it uses in cleaning the used cars it sells at auctions.
The evidence was crystal clear. One vial was filled with water that was nearly black, full of dirt, grease, fluids discharged from cars during the cleaning process. That is the water that Manheim used to discharge into the public sewer system.
Next to that vial was one of nearly clear water with a slight yellowish tone. That’s what Manheim now releases into county’s water and sewer system. And then there’s a third vial with water that’s as clear as tap water. That vial is filled with the water that Manheim is now able to recycle in its car-cleaning operation.
The new “Water Conservation Center,” a four-step process complete with microbes that clean the water, was co-developed by Ashland Water Technologies and Manheim Auctions, a division of Cox Enterprises, which also owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The program is part of a company-wide Cox Conserves initiative to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent in the next 10 years, according to Jim Kennedy, CEO of Cox Enterprises.
Kennedy said he began thinking about what kind of legacy he could leave at Cox when he was about to turn 60 and become a grand-father. That’s when he and other Cox executives decided to launch an extensive conservation effort.
The new Water Conservation Center is treated 15,000 gallons of waste water a day and produces up to 9,000 gallons of reusable water for its vehicle operations. Manheim estimates that it will extract 24 tons of contaminants from wastewater each year.
Company officials said the facility will reduce water demand at the plant by 60 percent and will return pretreated water to Fulton County’s sewer system.
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Funding fashion led to priceless friendship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The always gracious J. Mack Robinson let me come by his Brookhaven office on Tuesday to dine on sandwiches so I could listen to him reminisce about his unique business partnership with fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Robinson got the news on Sunday that Saint Laurent had passed away. “I was not expecting it, but his health has not been good for a while,” said Robinson, who has had his own health issues.
Both Robinson and his wife, Nita, have been in the hospital twice in the past two months — both suffering from heart problems. Because of the health issues, Robinson says that he won’t be able to attend Saint Laurent’s service later this week.
“It’ll be the first time I’ve ever been invited by Yves to a special event that I didn’t attend,” Robinson said. “I was just afraid to go out of town.”
Despite not feeling well, Robinson was in his office on Tuesday. At 85, Robinson still comes in to work every day and spends at least four to five hours overseeing the operations of the multiple companies he owns.
He has lost count of all the companies he’s owned over the years, saying it’s at least 100. “I had about 20 banks at one time.”
And he can barely remember all the industries he’s been in: carpet, lumber, banking, insurance, billboards, newspapers, television stations, perfumes, automobiles, horse-racing and printing, to name a few. Until recently, he was the largest individual shareholder in Wachovia. (But that’s another story.)
Of all the companies Robinson owned, none had quite the flair of owning the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house.
Back in 1962, Robinson owned a small insurance company in Switzerland. That firm was approached to invest in a new, young French designer — Yves Saint Laurent. Because he thought the investment was too risky for the insurance company, Robinson decided he would personally buy the fashion house.
Here was a self-made man from Atlanta (who got his start working in circulation for The Atlanta Journal and selling used cars) rubbing shoulders with the most famous people in the world — Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Grace Kelly and Catherine Deneuve, to name a few.
“I enjoyed every minute of it, even when it was losing money, because it was very interesting,” Robinson said. “It was a struggle. I had to get money wired every week to cover the payroll. I got embarrassed going to the bank. I think the bankers thought I was crazy.”
There also was hostility toward him in France, a fiercely proud country that didn’t really like one of its premier fashion houses being owned by a foreigner. In fact, then-President Charles de Gaulle made a speech criticizing American ownership of French enterprises, and he specifically mentioned Yves Saint Laurent.
Robinson owned the YSL fashion house until 1966, when he sold his 80 percent interest to a business partner for $1 million (nearly the amount he had invested in the enterprise). At that point, it was the top fashion house in the world.
“I practically gave it away,” said Robinson. (The fashion house sold for nearly $1 billion in 1999.)
There were reasons Robinson sold it. His two daughters were young, and the traveling was taking its toll.
“The whole time I owned the company, I didn’t ever miss a show on opening day,” he said. That meant he was flying back and forth at least twice a year. “Then we didn’t have jet planes. We had to stop to refuel. It was a long trip.”
Still, he admits that he regrets having sold the fashion house, especially for so little. But the memories are fresh.
“Yves always had [health] problems since the first day I met him,” Robinson said. “I insured him every year. When he would do a collection, I would drop a flat million dollars if the collection didn’t come out on time.”
Saint Laurent wanted to get into the perfume business, and he wanted to call the new scent “Opium.” Robinson refused to let him name a perfume after a narcotic. Then, the moment Robinson sold his investment, Saint Laurent unveiled Opium, which became one of the top-selling perfumes in the world.
Despite their differences, Robinson said: “We never had an argument. I thought the world of him.”
Robinson was particularly touched that Saint Laurent always included him in special events, long after he no longer had a financial interest in the house.
About three years ago, Saint Laurent put on a private dinner at the Ritz in Paris for about “20 old-timers” who had helped the designer throughout his career.
“They always put the spotlight on me,” Robinson said of Saint Laurent. “His favorite expression was: ‘If it wasn’t for this man, we wouldn’t be here tonight.’ ”
Of all the memories, the one that moved him most was when his daughter, Robin, got married. She really wanted her wedding dress to be designed by Yves Saint Laurent.
So Robinson, his wife and his daughter made several trips to Paris. At one point, Saint Laurent told Nita: “You need a dress, too.”
So after several trans-Atlantic trips for fittings and the dresses were complete, Robinson went to pay. “Yves said, ‘You don’t owe me a dime.’ ” Sitting back in his chair, Robinson remembers Saint Laurent with quiet emotion.
“He has had health problems for many years,” he said. “I’m really surprised he lived this long. He was a good friend.”
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Tech faces pressure to save building
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Tech Foundation took its request to demolish the historic Crum & Forster building Tuesday evening to the Neighborhood Planning Unit — E meeting.
But community and civic leaders were as determined as ever to save the elegant building at the corner of Spring and Fourth streets.
Two leaders who were at the meeting sent me emails about what happened — architect Jonathan LaCrosse and Midtown’s NPU-E representative Graham Balch. To read their partially edited emails, please click on link at the end of this item.
The movement to save the Crum & Forster is gaining steam. As of this morning, the web-based petition to save the building has generated 1,144 names and comments. To read the petitition
Community leaders hope the public protest will lead to the Georgia Tech Foundation reconsidering its plans to demolish the building. Their comments….
Email notes from Jonathan LaCrosse:
(NPU-E Chair) Penelope Cheroff began by explaining the process a bit, and the specifics of the project. The NPU will not vote but will provide comment on the building that will then be forwarded to the Development Review Committee.
Carl Westmoreland got up to represent the Foundation. He gave a brief description, and stated that the building was to be replaced by a plane of grass instead of a parking lot (he corrected P. Cheroff - she had said a parking lot)
Said Tom Barranco , and the guy from HGOR landscape architects was here to also represent the board.
They said they had met with Boyd Coons with the APC, and Ray Christman with the Georgia Trust to establish “dialogue” with the community
Cheroff then opened the floor and stated she had letters from the Urban Design Commision, the Georgia Trust, and other interested parties who were in opposition of this matter.
She then invited all those that were in opposition to this demolition permit to stand, nearly everyone stood. Cheroff said that she had talked with the Ansley Park folks today and that she could stand up for them, to which point the representatives from the various neighborhoods of NPU E stood.
Graham Balch, Midtown’s NPU-E representative said that Atlanta and Georgia Tech are like two sisters…Atlanta wouldn’t be what it is today without Georgia Tech, and Georgia Tech wouldn’t be what it is today without Atlanta. He continued to say that Atlanta was asking Georgia Tech to preserve this building.
The floor was then fully opened up.
Boyd Coons (Atlanta Preservation Center) spoke first, he handed letters from the APC and GA Trust to the NPU E.
Laura Depree Spoke up representing the ICA/CA and The SAF, she started out saying Atlanta was tired of its history being ripped away from it and then read some very eloquent comments from people who have signed the petition )
I then spoke up, reading a few more comments, , stating that the dialogue is occurring all across this city and the Foundation, through their insistence on going forward with this demolition permit is ignoring what the citizens of Atlanta are saying, I also mentioned that this is now bigger than Atlanta and is getting national attention. I ended by reading the mission statement of the GA Tech foundation and asking how the demolition of this building will further their stated mission.
Clementine Sharpe - representing the Young ICA/CA Southeastern Chapter then got up and pointed out that they had just organized a sketching studying tour of the city and that for them it was extremely important since this is one of the few examples of Commercial Classicism available to study, she said most of the time they only get to study classically designed residential buildings and to take away the opportunity for future generations was wrong.
One person spoke up that she had gone around this morning, taking pictures of the site, and that while she agreed with absolutely everything that was said by those opposed she was disgusted by the condition of the site, not the building - she made a point to mention that it was so well built it could last for hundreds of years -there are broken parking boxes, overgrown grass, trash, etc., these could contribute to illicit activities. Which would further degrade the health, and life-safety of the students and the Midtown community at large. She expected better of a “good neighbor”
Another NPU member recounted a story about the loss of the Kimball House and how they replaced it with a parking deck, “hanging Mr. kimball’s portrait” removed from the hotel “in the parking deck lobby.” He said it made him “sad for my city”.
Comment was then made by Cheroff that the citizens have been successful in saving buildings in the past, and she encouraged everyone to speak up to the city.
Comment was supposed to conclude, however, the crowd wanted more answers. Crowd: “What plans do you have?”
The foundation: “We bought the property to expand Tech Square, but with no specific use for the site in question.”
This continued response did not fare well, eliciting comments such as: “ unthinkable that it [C&F building] wasn’t incorporated with the Plans.” “Surely you knew the building was there.”
Another gentleman piped up that as a former Georgia Tech tour guide and Alum, the thing that he felt that made Tech so great was the “exact mix of old and new”, and that by destroying this Tech was “betraying our very core values.”
Crowd: “Was anyone able to see the documentary on President Clough where he states “how proud he was on his working with the neighborhoods”…”his legacy could be to help preserve this building …not a legacy of destruction”
Crowd: The Georgia Tech Foundation need to re-evaluate their strategy and perhaps become “less of a caretaker of funds” and more “as a leader in the community” time is on the Foundations hands…”Do things that enhance that community not detract from it”
In defense Tom Barranco stated again the foundation “bought the property with the intent of exapanding Technology Square” and that the “clear opinion is that they not tear down this building , and that we could debate whether or not the GTF are a pillar of the Community…they have done a Police precinct - Tech Square - and the Home Park Community center.”
Crowd: “Why can’t the building then be a part of the expansion of Tech Square, why are the two mutually exclusive?’ “What is the real plan?’
Georgia Tech Foundation representatives said they were going through the process, that they had received numerous phone calls, letters, petitions, etc, and understand the objections.
Crowd: “Then why hasn’t the foundation withdrawn the application?”
No response that I can recall or have jotted down
Crowd: “Have you studied alternatives, and what is the result?”
The GTF - “Yes, and this is the result”
Comment from the crowd - “then what architect made the study?”
The GTF - no comment made.
Another crowd member piped up and said perhaps someone should “call the Governor,”and get with the Board of Regents to “cut funding to Tech.”
In closing Penelope Cheroff stated “come to us, let us help you save this building.”
A comment was then made for folks to contact the City of Atlanta Bureau of Planning since they are the ones who ultimately grant the permit.
Email Notes from Graham Balch
Well, it seems like Georgia Tech Foundation is still set on tearing down the building. At the end they say they heard the people, but that they are continuing to pursue the demolition permit as their decided course of action.
I am pasting in a bunch of things that were said tonight and two folks got up and quoted from what was written on the petition against this project which I also included:
Carl Westnoreland (lawyer for GT foundation): It is not being converted into a parking lot, it is being converted to green space. Tech bought the property six months ago. They want to incorporate it into their Tech Development. We understand the sense of the community. Both Georgia Tech and the Foundation that they will study alternatives.
Graham Balch (NPU representative from Midtown): Atlanta would not be Atlanta without Georgia Tech and Georgia Tech would not be Georgia Tech without Atlanta. We are sisters in making Atlanta the pinnacle city in the south. Your sister, the city of Atlanta, is here tonight to ask you to preserve this building. Are we so rich that we can afford to lose this building or so poor that we can’t afford to keep it? Your sister, the city of Atlanta, is making one the strongest felt requests we have ever made of Georgia Tech as we ask you “Please, preserve this building.”
Boyd Coons (Atlanta Preservation Center): “We consider this to be historically and aesthetically very important. This is an indictment against Georgia Tech. This building is so important.”
Winston (Midtown resident): Replace the Crum & Forster building with another building like at 5th and spring would be ridiculous because this building adds character to the neighborhood. Another gentleman said the building was very strong and would stand for 200 years. It is against anything anybody who has any respect for design would do. Over my dead body and I will do everything I can to preserve that building. I have sent emails to everyone at Tech asking that this building not be torn down and that is what I am asking you.
Laura (granddaughter of architect who designed the building): Midtown neighbor and Tech alum, multi-generation alum, I speak for well over 1,000 people who are against this demolition. “It is hard to believe that this building is at risk of being destroyed. Please GT Foundation, don’t commit this crime.”
Jonathan Lacrosse: “I think it is wonderful that the foundation has done so much at Tech’s Square.” LaCross, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1998, read several entries from the petition.
Penelpe Cheroff (NPU Chair): “We are talking about what people need and it speaks to us. Partner with us in saving this building. Partner with us. Talk to us. You will let us help you find a way to keep it.”
Carl: Y’all have been very clear and consistent. That message has gone back to the foundation. They understand it. The response has to come from the foundation. They understand the issues and concerns.
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Nunns make volunteerism a family affair
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There they were - father and daughter - on the stage together as part of a panel, talking about a topic that is dear to both of them. Volunteerism in America.
Officially, it was the Cohen-Nunn Dialogue on Citizen Service, a high point of this week’s National Conference on Volunteering & Service meeting in Atlanta this week.
Former Sen. Sam Nunn and former Sen. William Cohen have been holding bi-partisan dialogues on various issues facing the United States. Tuesday, the topic was citizen service, and how should public policy encourage people to serve their country.
On the panel was Nunn’s daughter, Michelle Nunn, who is CEO of the Points of Light Institute and the co-founder of both Hands On Atlanta and Hands On Network.
When her father asked her a question, she broke the ice by saying how intimidating it was to be asked a question by her father in front of an audience. (The question was whether community service organizations could handle the influx of volunteers if national service was mandatory).
“We do know what works,” Michelle Nunn answered saying that all the volunteer organizations in the country stand ready to not just grow incrementally but ready to grow “expediently.” “I truly believe we can be bold and be far-reaching.”
Her father joked as she was answering the question: “It’s the first time in 20 years that she’s answered a question.”
What a unique family. And what a unique contribution it has made to the country’s profile.
Colleen Nunn, the senator’s wife and Michelle’s mother, said they are all interested in public service. She said that her husband and daughter have inspired each other in their work on volunteerism and service.
“He’s been a good trooper,” said Michelle, who watched her father’s commitment to public service in its broadest form. “I was familiar with national service because of his involvement. But he’s never channeled me in one direction.”
The proud father put it another way. “She comes up with a bold creative idea, and I tell her it won’t work,” Sam Nunn said. “She disregards my advice and makes it work. That’s our relationship.”
Collen Nunn put it another way. “They are both visionaries, and I’m the realist.”
And one could see the dynamic on stage as the panel brainstormed on the best ways to encourage everyone to some form of national and community service.
“I’m just lucky to get invited to her events,” Sen. Nunn said of his daughter. “I’m very proud of her.”
Photo by Maria Saporta
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A vice presidential huddle? Nunn, Borders talk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the close of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders huddled with former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn. (Both had just sat on the closing panel).
Borders, who was an early backer of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, admitted to me that she was hoping Nunn would be asked to join the Democratic ticket.
She said she’s been urging people at the Obama campaign to seriously consider Nunn, 69.
Nunn’s foreign policy experience coupled with his stature and maturity would complement an Obama administration. When he was senator, he served as chair of the Armed Services Committee. More recently, he has been running the Nuclear Threat Initiative to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction around the world.
Of course, Nunn was careful in how he responded to reporters’ questions about whether he was open to becoming a vice presidential candidate.
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Arthritis Foundation names new CFO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Arthritis Foundation, which is based in Atlanta, has announced that Christopher Corrigan has been named its new chief financial officer overseeing the non-profit’s financial and administrative operations.
Corrigan most recently has been a chief financial officer of the liberal arts college at Emory University where he helped managed an annual budget of more than $215 million. Corrigan also holds the rank of captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
The Arthritis Foundation serves 46 million people in the United States who are living with arthritis. Since 1948, the Arthritis Foundation has invested more than $380 million in research. It is one of many non-profits that has its headquarters in Atlanta.
Corrigan will be reporting to John H. Klippel, the CEO of the Arthritis Foundation.
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Azira Hill honored by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the annual dinner meeting of the Atlanta Symphony board on Monday evening, Azira Hill was given a special honor.
She was elected to be a life director of the ASO, an honor that is only share by five other people.
Azira Hill, wife of retired Atlanta Life CEO Jesse Hill, was awarded that distinction because of all the work she has done to inspire the development of talent among young African-American and Latino students.
She helped establish the ASO’s Talent Development Program in 1993, which has prepared 81 students for study at music conservatories, colleges and universities by providing tuition-free instruction.
The Azira G. Hill Scholarship Fund, established in 1999 to honor Mrs. Hill, allows students to attend prestigious national summer music study program. It has become a model among orchestras around the country as a way to develop new talent, particularly in minority and ethnic communities.
“The award dinner was outstanding,” Jesse Hill told me Tuesday morning. The dinner was held at the new W Hotel Midtown at Colony Square. He openly was beaming with pride over the honor given to his wife of 53 years.
The annual dinner also witnessed the passing of the ASO chairmanship from Margaret Reiser of Boardwalk Consulting to Ben Johnson, longtime leader of Alston & Bird.
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Execs endorse volunteerism, social responsibility
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Companies that care about their communities and encourage their employees to volunteer their time to support causes will be more successful in the long run.
That was the theme of a CEO Roundtable discussion this morning at the National Conference on Volunteering & Service, which has brought about 4,500 leaders to Atlanta.
“Our customers require us to be active socially,” said Pierre Ferrari, continuing board chairman of Ben & Jerry’s. “During difficult times, we are expected to do even more.” Ed Fikse, U.S. managing director of Accenture, said community involvement is important for both publicly-held and privately-held companies.
“You have to make it part of the corporate agenda,” Fikse said, adding that shareholders and owners expect companies to give back. “At board meetings, board members ask us about engagement.”
Executives at the round table discussion today acknowledged that their companies are more inclined to recognize the longterm benefits of corporate social responsibility. Other companies might be more driven by their short-term bottom line.
Yet companies that dedicate themselves to community volunteerism are at an advantage in attracting the best employees and having a better relationship with customers, they said.
The conference leaders also recognized several companies with awards, including Atlanta’s own ChoicePoint, which has helped nonprofits screen volunteers for possible criminal records.
“Literally once a day, we find a sex offender trying to volunteer at a youth organization,” said Derek Smith, ChoicePoint’s CEO, upon accepting the award.
Smith dedicated the award to Moses Champion, who during the first 48 hours of his life was kidnapped. ChoicePoint employees helped set up a blast alert system for kidnapped victims. And Champion was quickly reunited with his family.
Atlanta is hosting the conference this year partly because of last year’s merger of Hands On Network and the Points of Light Foundation. The merged organization, the largest volunteer-based organization in the country, is headquartered in Atlanta. The CEO is Michelle Nunn, who co-founded both Hands On Atlanta and Hands On Network.
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How can Atlanta leverage its public health role?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Metro Atlanta is emerging as a national and international hub for public health.
The presence and emergence of several institutions here have helped build a cluster of professional experts and outreach from Atlanta.
There is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Carter Center. CARE. Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and its Rollins School for Public Health. The Georgia Cancer Coalition, the Georgia Research Alliance and the American Cancer Society. And then there’s the Morehouse School of Medicine (see link to column below).
How can Atlanta leverage its role as an international center for public health?
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Morehouse helps make Atlanta public health center
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After two years as president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, John E. Maupin Jr. has big plans to increase the institution’s impact on the community.
Don’t be surprised if in a few years the school will have doubled or tripled its endowment; become a gathering place for leaders developing policies for public health; expanded its educational offerings and outreach programs and emerged as an institution known for its faculty and professionals.
The Morehouse School of Medicine split from Morehouse College in 1981 to become its own four-year college with a special purpose in the healthcare field.
“Our original mission was to train primary care physicians to serve in underserved communities,” Maupin said, adding that the institution emphasized the African American community in the Atlanta area.
Now the mission has been expanded to serve people of color (including other population groups) throughout the state.
The Morehouse School of Medicine is in the midst of a major strategic planning process, to be completed this fall, to take the institution to the next level. That likely will lead to a new capital campaign to grow the institution over the next five or so years.
“We are going to have to make focused investments in key areas that advance the mission and viability of the institution,” said Maupin, 61, a dentist by training who also has an MBA from Loyola College in Baltimore. “We have done a great job of growing from small resources.”
(By the way, Maupin serves on the boards of Variable Annuity Life Insurance Cos.; LifePoint Hospitals, HealthSouth, and Regions Financial Corp.)
The school does have its challenges. It’s relatively young. Many of is graduates are first generation college students, often from poorer backgrounds. Because the school specializes in primary healthcare, not the most lucrative medical field, the alumni’s ability to make major donations to the school is limited.
The school’s endowment today is at $60.8 million, a far cry from the endowments found at other similarly-sized medical schools.
“The minimum should be $200 million, and healthier institutions would be at $300 million plus,” Maupin said. “Our opportunity for substantial gifts from our community is limited.”
Still, the Morehouse School of Medicine has come a long way. In 1998, the endowment was only $10.6 million.
Credit for the school’s growth in the past decade is largely due to two of its past presidents, both national leaders in public health.
The founding president was Dr. Louis Sullivan, who served as U.S. secretary of health and human resources from 1989 to 1993. He then returned to his role as president of Morehouse School of Medicine until he retired in 2002. Sullivan continues to advise the institution.
The other high-profile leader is Dr. David Satcher. Satcher served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1993 and 1998; and as U.S. Surgeon General from 1998 to 2002. He served as interim president of Morehouse in 2004 until Maupin came on board in 2006. That’s when he established the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the school.
“We were nationally known because of the prominence of our leaders, our stars — Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Satcher,” Maupin said. “Our future is not going to be about how well I’m known. In the future, our stars are going to be our top researchers, administrators, graduates and alums.”
Part of Maupin’s leadership style is to take the spotlight off himself and to promote others in the organization. At the same time, he has worked hard to keep all the stars who brought the school this far working together.
Maupin was tapped in February 2006 to be president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, when he was president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville. A major reason for accepting the job was that his son, Virgil, 31, wanted to return to Atlanta and teach at Morehouse College.
But then tragedy struck. His son was killed in an automobile accident that April. The pain was especially intense given the fact that Maupin had been leading a campaign to encourage the use of seat belts in the African-American community. He had received national awards and recognition for his work.
“My son wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” Maupin said. “I know that my initiative saved lives, but I wasn’t able to change the habit of my son.”
At Morehouse, Maupin knows he can continue helping save lives and promoting the health and welfare of those in the community.
Maupin has been busy strengthening the school’s community ties with Grady Hospital, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Cancer Coalition and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, among others.
Morehouse has been particularly vested in the future of Grady, which serves as the teaching hospital for 90 percent of its students. The hospital still owes $7 million to the school, but at least it is keeping up with its current payments.
“The crisis is past, but significant challenges remain,” said Maupin, who is an ex-officio member on the new board. While Grady will always serve as the anchor teaching hospital for Morehouse, he is exploring relationships with other hospitals, particularly the Veterans Administration hospital.
Maupin also wants to double the size of Morehouse’s public health program, and it is establishing a School for Community Health.
“Atlanta is in fact a center for global health, and that’s a place where we want to play a bigger role,” Maupin said mentioning the CDC, the Carter Center and CARE among others. “We can be a focus of bringing thoughtful leaders to our campus and to this city on the issues of health that face the nation.”
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