The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is pleased to announce that Zach Hansen has been named the economic development and commercial real estate reporter for the newspaper.
“His mission will be to help our readers make sense of what’s happening in commercial real estate and the broader economy,” said J. Scott Trubey, the AJC’s economy and environment editor. “His experience reporting on community development and local government will be key in explaining what businesses and local and state governments are doing to seed and manage growth.”
Hansen has been an AJC reporter since September 2016, first working as an intern in the features department. Since then, he’s covered breaking news, DeKalb County government and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to being named economic development and commercial real estate reporter, he was the newspaper’s DeKalb County hyperlocal reporter.
“While it’s bittersweet to leave DeKalb County after covering it for nearly two years, I’m excited to take on this new challenge covering economic development and commercial real estate,” Hansen said. “I’m humbled to be given the opportunity to cover this challenging, expansive and impactful beat.”
During his time covering DeKalb County and its cities, Hansen sharpened his eye for watchdog reporting and broke news on multiple scandals. He covered corruption in Stonecrest, detailing how the city’s founding mayor concocted a scheme to steal pandemic relief funds. The mayor, who resigned earlier this year, is set to be sentenced next week. In total, Hansen wrote more than 50 stories detailing the mayor’s corruption.
Hansen also anchored the newspaper’s election night coverage for Atlanta’s suburbs since 2021. He covered a potentially unprecedented lawsuit in Brookhaven over a development deal gone wrong that led to elected officials being fined millions of dollars personally. He also investigated corrupt behavior by the Stonecrest Development Authority that led to every member of the authority being asked to resign by city leaders.
He can be reached at zachary.hansen@ajc.com.
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