The board members of the Westside Future Fund, a private nonprofit geared toward overseeing redevelopment on Atlanta’s West side, were named by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Friday.
The group brings together business and civic leaders to coordinate public and private investment in communities such as Vine City and English Avenue, located near the future $1.4 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium. The group’s goal is to improve economic conditions in the largely impoverished community, Reed said.
“What we’re doing today is putting a stake in the ground [to spur progress] in the most challenged parts of the city of Atlanta,” Reed said.
The mayor announced plans in June to form the nonprofit in conjunction with the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a committee of CEOs and academic leaders who collaborate with the mayor on civic projects. Reed said the group is still developing an action plan, but hopes to assist in efforts such as acquiring blighted and abandoned properties and helping existing homeowners remain in the area. The mayor said it’s too soon to say how that will be achieved.
The nonprofit is modeled after the East Lake Foundation, formed by developer Tom Cousins in the mid-1990s, that has received national acclaim for its successful community redevelopment efforts.
The stadium communities —- specifically English Avenue, Vine City and Castleberry Hill —- have already been promised $15 million from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and $15 million from the Westside tax allocation district. Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development agency, has already begun awarding those TAD dollars to community groups.
Richard Dugas, chairman and CEO of PulteGroup, is chairman of the nine-member board.
Other members include: former Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman, a partner at Bain & Co; Post 1 At-Large Councilman Michael Julian Bond; Jackmont Hospitality CEO and Reed ally Dan Halpern; United Distributors CEO Doug Hertz; Penny McPhee, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation; Atlanta Life Financial President Bill Taggart; Spelman College President Dr. Beverly Tatum and District 3 Councilman Ivory Lee Young.
The new stadium —- which Reed has touted as an anchor to revitalization of the neighborhoods just west of downtown —- has stirred up deep-seated tensions between residents, elected officials and the football franchise set to profit from the project. Those rifts were exacerbated during a series of meetings last year over how to spend the $30 million pledged in community benefits to the stadium communities.
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