Georgia Tech gets grant to teach real estate development

A Rome businessman has given $1 million to Georgia Tech’s College of Management to teach real estate development.

Robert H. Ledbetter Sr., a 1958 Tech graduate, made the donation to create an endowment that will fund a “professorship of the practice” in his name.

The new professor, yet to be named, will be someone who has had years of experience in real estate development and might continue in that role while teaching.

The endowment is expected to throw off $40,000 a year to fund one or more elective real estate courses, which will begin next year.

Ledbetter, 72, is founder, chief executive officer and president of R. H. Ledbetter Properties, a family-owned real estate development and management company.

“For college students interested in the real estate development business, the best way for them to start learning is through an experienced developer who has seen it all,” Ledbetter said.

Steve Salbu, dean of the management college, said, “the future Bob Ledbetters of the real estate development world will benefit enormously from new real estate course offerings taught by a gifted practitioner.”

Ledbetter’s company concentrates on retail and medical projects. The company says its portfolio consists of more than 1.3 million square feet of space in north Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana.

In 2002, Ledbetter was an unsuccessful candidate for the Georgia Department of Transportation board. He was a supporter of the controversial Northern Arc, a 60-mile highway that would have linked I-75 and I-85 in North Georgia. The project was shelved.

Ledbetter used to run a paving company called Ledbetter Brothers. In the 1980s, it was caught up in a four-year state investigation of bid rigging and was fined $250,000.