Home > Business Insider > Archives > 2008 > August > 14 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCity Council vote Monday key to fate of civil rights center
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights will face a critical vote at Monday’s Atlanta City Council meeting.
On that day, the council will decide whether to allocate up to $40 million in funding from the Westside Tax Allocation District toward the project.
A “yes” vote would demonstrate there is government support to build the $125 million attraction — an essential ingredient needed when trying to raise private funding.
Doug Shipman, executive director of the center, said Monday’s vote would provide momentum to help advance the project.
“A number of private foundations and corporations in Atlanta and nationally are interested in the project, but they want to see a significant public commitment,” Shipman said. “The council vote should allow us to get a series of additional commitments.”
The center also expects to receive about $10 million in federal funding in “New Market Tax Credits” through the Atlanta Development Authority and Central Atlanta Progress to stimulate downtown economic development.
Shipman added that the center has already raised more than $10 million in private funding.
With a positive vote from the council “we will be right at halfway home,” Shipman said. “And that doesn’t include the King papers and it doesn’t include the land.”
The Atlanta community secured a significant collection of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers just before they were to be auctioned off.
Local leaders still need to raise another $10 million to repay a $32 million loan plus an additional $3 million in interest.
The Coca-Cola Co. also has offered a 2.5-acre site on the same block as the new World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium for the center.
Other developments under way include the naming of a board that will include about 15 to 20 local and national leaders.
“That’s going to be augmented by an advisory group that’s much bigger and broader,” Shipman said.
Other developments include finalizing the site and working on the interior design of the center. In October, there will be a series of public forums to review the proposed exhibits and galleries.
At the same time, the center will select an architect to design the building.
“We’ve been quiet for the last eight months, and that’s because we’ve been putting all these things in place,” Shipman said. “We are about to enter the public phase.”
The hope is to start construction on the attraction next year (ideally before Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin leaves office) and have it open in 2011.
But construction will begin only if all the funding is in place because similar attractions have trouble succeeding when saddled with debt.
The center has hired Alisa Smallwood as its chief fund-raiser.
FUND-RAISERS TO HONOR BUNZL, YATES
You read it here first. The 2008 Philanthropist of the Year will be Francis Bunzl, and the 2008 Volunteer Fundraiser will be Charlie Yates Jr.
The Greater Atlanta Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals will honor both Bunzl and Yates at the National Philanthropy Day luncheon on Oct. 28.
Bunzl, nominated by the High Museum of Art, is being honored for decades of support to the museum, Emory University, the Woodruff Arts Center, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum Foundation, the Atlanta International School and other institutions.
Yates was nominated by the Atlanta Opera for helping “turn around” its financial situation over the past couple of years as well as helping launch its $10.9 million capital campaign (of which he personally raised $2 million).
Yates also has been active with the Metropolitan Atlanta YMCA, Westminster Schools, the Sara Giles Moore Foundation, the Atlanta Rotary Club, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank, among others.
WORLD LEADERS TO ATTEND FORUM
For the second year, Atlanta is hosting the Americas Competitiveness Forum starting Sunday evening and ending Tuesday evening.
The event is drawing the presidents of Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala; and it is being held in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce. In fact, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez will open the two-day forum, moderate a panel with the presidents and participate in its closing session.
The forum will also have influential business, political, media and international leaders participating in panel discussions.
The goal of the forum is to improve the economic competitiveness of the Americas.
CONVENTION CHIEF RECOVERING FROM SURGERY
For those of us who love Spurge.
Spurgeon Richardson, president of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, is recovering from back surgery at Emory University Hospital.
Richardson had a seven-disc fusion last week, a procedure that caused him to lose a lot of blood and spend two nights in intensive care.
His daughter, Kathryn Gerrick, said her father is now stable. He is able to get up a couple of times a day to walk short distances. Gerrick also said she hopes he will be able to go home soon.
“He continues to show glimpses of his normal self,” she wrote me in an e-mail Tuesday. “I called to check on him earlier today, and he ended the conversation the same way he ends our conversation every morning: ‘Be the most positive and enthusiastic person you know today.’ ”
Good old Spurge.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Comments