Business leaders launch new $10 million fundraising campaign for Beltline

The Atlanta Beltline’s Westside Trail

What: Planned three-mile stretch of the Beltline, set to begin construction later this year

Where: Will begin near Adair Park in southwest Atlanta and run northward to Washington Park

What it costs: $43 million, with $18 million in a federal transportation grant, $10 million in private donations and the rest coming from state, regional and local funding

When it will open: Estimated completion date in fall 2016

Charlie Shufeldt thought he had until the end of the year to come up with $10 million.

Shufeldt chairs the Atlanta Beltline Partnership fundraising group, and that’s the amount of private funding needed for the Westside Trail, a planned three-mile portion of the popular green space project.

However, the U.S. Department of Transportation, eager for the next leg of the partly government-funded Beltline to be finished, moved up the construction timeline. That means Shufeldt’s group, as the nonprofit fundraising arm of the Beltline, has to have most of the $10 million in private funds committed by July.

So Shufeldt did what any man needing millions does: Call some local philanthropists for help.

Enter the Atlanta business community, which has a long tradition of financially supporting big local causes. The $10 million fundraising effort received a swift boost from Cox Enterprises Chairman Jim Kennedy, who agreed to donate half of the needed funds to the Westside Trail through the James M. Cox Foundation.

It’s the latest multi-million dollar donation that Kennedy — whose holdings include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — has made to the Beltline, having previously given $7.5 million over the years.

Now, with the aid of Atlanta Beltline Partnership founding chairman Ray Weeks and Atlanta Gas Light President John Somerhalder, who chairs Atlanta Beltline Inc., the men are calling on friends to do what the local business community often does: write a check.

In an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the men extolled the virtues of the green space project and why it has their attention.

They believe the Beltline brings new life to old communities, attracts young professionals and families — and helps keep them here. In their view, that’s good for Atlanta and its business community.

Kennedy, an avid cyclist and outdoorsman, also sees the project having an interesting effect on human interaction.

“I’ve seen what trails can do,” he said of the benefits of connecting with nature. “I particularly like them in the metro area. They get people to look at one another.”

Originally envisioned as a master’s thesis by then-Georgia Tech student Ryan Gravel, the Beltline aims to transform dilapidated rail line corridors into a 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit by 2030. The project — run by nonprofit Atlanta Beltline Inc. — is funded in a variety of ways: a tax allocation district, a mix of federal, state and local grants, and private donations.

The Westside Trail will take shape in southwest Atlanta and is expected to open in late 2016. Backers hope to re-create the magic of the Beltline’s original Eastside Trail, a path near Piedmont Park that draws thousands on any given day and has spurred development along its corridor.

With a price tag of $43 million, the Westside Trail is largely funded by an $18 million federal transportation grant, $10 million in private dollars and a combination of local funds from its tax district, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The Westside Trail is just one piece of the Beltline’s $4.3 billion overall vision. About half of that overall cost is for a planned light rail portion that will connect with the Atlanta Streetcar, an element of the project that has drawn the most skepticism.

Each step of the Beltline’s still-developing plan requires piecing together funding. Atlanta Beltline Inc. spokesman Ethan Davidson said it is too soon to say just how much will have to come from private donors. So far, Atlanta Beltline Partnership has raised more than $40 million.

But the Beltline faces real financial headwinds, even with private help.

The project took a beating in its early years from a legal challenge to the use of property tax revenue to fund its development. The Great Recession then devastated the Beltline’s growth projections, stalling development and ravaging its bottom line.

As a result, the Beltline is unable to meet the annual terms of a 25-year, $162 million agreement it struck with Atlanta Public Schools — a trade-off for the use for Beltline development of property tax revenue that otherwise would have gone to APS. Beltline officials are trying to renegotiate that deal.

For Kennedy, a longtime supporter of the Path Foundation, which builds trails for the Beltline, his $5 million donation was also strategic. He hopes it encourages other major donors to give.

Talking about wealth can be a social faux pas in polite circles. But when it comes to philanthropy, it’s a statement — a stamp of approval other heavy hitters seek before they loosen their purse strings.

“Business people like leverage. They like multiples,” said Weeks, who gave $1 million in the project’s early days and said he is planning another gift. “People want to give to successful things. It’s a matter of getting people to see we’re all going to do it.”

But with the contraction of government services, competition for philanthropic dollars is tougher than ever.

“There are more and more organizations not getting the funding they need,” said Kennedy, whose Cox Foundation knows well the financial constraints many nonprofits face.

Part of selling the Beltline is appealing to each business leader’s priorities, Atlanta Gas Light’s Somerhalder said, whether it’s health care or technology. Somerhalder, who also sits on the board of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, said he understands donors are weighing a variety of causes, ranging from curing cancer to feeding the hungry.

“It really is about what priorities match up to their needs,” he said.

Succeeding in the pitch isn’t about “putting heat” on people, he added, but “showing them the opportunity.”

The business community has been involved from the very beginning of the Beltline project in 2005, when then-Mayor Shirley Franklin tapped Weeks to shake the money trees in town. Weeks, of Weeks Robinson Properties, spent the next four years leading a full-time funding effort through the Atlanta Beltline Partnership.

Back then, Kennedy said, people were asked to donate to an idea, something that existed only in Gravel’s masters thesis.

This time, with the Eastside Trail a demonstrated success, business leaders hope fundraising will be easier.

The group is launching a grassroots campaign to encourage donations across the income spectrum, hoping Atlantans who believe in the Beltline might spare a few extra dollars — if not millions — for the cause.