12B
ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE
OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 5, 2015
ATLANTA REGIONAL COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE ECONOMY
Alliance works to grow business around airport
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abandoned and areas used as a dump.
We’re not proud of that.”
Turner believes those sort of reversals
can be righted by stretching the airport’s
impact into the surrounding area. That
has been the goal of the Atlanta Aerotropolis Alliance, a coalition formed
in late 2014 to work on initiatives that
extend and support the airport’s positive business climate. The group recently
wrapped up a months-long project that
created a blueprint for the area that designates which sections are ripe for development, as well as just what sort of development it should foster.
“We’re working in incremental steps
that could possibly be a 10-year project,” he said. “As years go on, we’ll be
bringing in more and more companies,
seeing more interest in the Aerotropolis
area in general. It will be as slow or as
fast as companies want to come in and
start building.”
Alliance leaders are making presentations of the blueprint to various counties and municipalities in the district. At
the same time, input from stakeholders
is being gathered with an eye toward an
early 2016 implementation date. Those
stakeholders were identified as being in
the district based on travel time more than
geographic distance, said Joe Folz, chief
counsel and secretary of Porsche Cars
North America, and Alliance chairman.
“Any part of the region that allows
you to reach the airport in about half an
hour can really be considered part of our
Aerotropolis,” he said. “It’s also important to understand that the blueprint is
really just that: an accurate, up-to-date
look at our best assets. For example, the
area already is home to about 300,000
people and supports about 200,000
jobs. We’ve also learned what clusters of
business currently are here, recognizing
that, organically, businesses usually want
to move where other similar businesses
already are successful.”
Having identified what currently exists
als
a lot of land and opportunity for growth
just 5 to 10 miles outside the airport
boundaries. Within that area, the impact
of the airport should be beneficial to Clayton County, but we’ve had areas where
people have moved out, properties were
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SPECIAL
Joe Foltz of Porsche Cars North America is chairman of Atlanta Aerotropolis
Alliance, which envisions development near the international airport.
rn
Having the world’s busiest airport in the
backyard has long been one of the metro
area’s chief assets, a draw for businesses
and residents alike.
While Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport itself has expanded,
adding terminals and tarmac, the areas
that abut its boundaries have not fared as
well. The substantial success of the mega
transportation hub hasn’t spread contagiously to the communities and businesses nearby.
That’s been particularly true in
Clayton County,
said Jeffrey Turner,
who is now in his
third year chairing
the Clayton County
Commission.
“ Wh e n
yo u
Jeffrey
think about the
Turner
Atlanta airport, you
think about it being in the city of Atlanta,
and it surprises people that over 90 percent of it is really in Clayton County,” said
Turner. “We’re strategically located with
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BY H.M. CAULEY
Contributing Writer
in the area, the Alliance is ready to specify
the types of businesses and growth that
will be most successful, said Folz. That’s a
somewhat easier task now that Porsche’s
North American headquarters have put
the area in the spotlight.
“Many people throughout the region
have told me that Porsche’s choice of the
airport area for its headquarters — and the
first Porsche Experience Center in North
America — really caused a lot of other people to think about how their own businesses could benefit from such immediate access to the world and to realize how
smart an economic choice it is to consider
an area that historically has not been seen
as a ‘hot’ property,” said Folz. “We hope
we really are a catalyst for a different way
of thinking and for the establishment of
a thriving community with many more
amenities to attract even more jobs. We
really see this as the beginning of a very
substantial upward spiral.”
Porsche became a player in the Alliance by voting with “our dollars and our
future,” said Folz. “We invested over $100
million in building what will be the most
important home for Porsche outside Germany for the next 50 or 60 years. We will
show the world how successful you be in
the Aerotropolis, and we will continue to
participate in meaningful efforts to bring
other great development to the area.”
The potential in the area is tremendous, said Pedro Cherry, vice president of
community and economic development
at Georgia Power and the Alliance’s vice
chair. “In fact, it is already paying dividends in certain areas.
For example, in the past two years, two
community improvement districts have
been created in the airport district, and
another one is under discussion.
Property owners in the Airport West
and Airport South CIDs have agreed to
assess themselves an additional tax to
focus on projects that will make the district more appealing for business retention and development.
Those assessments will underwrite
transportation improvements; enhance
signage and public safety; and add beautification amenities such as lighting, public art and landscaping. More important,
they show the spirit of collaboration that
is strong in the area, said Cherry.
“There are two counties and three
municipalities on the AAA board, as
well as several private sector entities
and all three of the area’s chambers of
commerce,” he said. “This project has
strengthened regional cooperation and
reinforced the importance of working
together without regard to political borders and partisan ties for the greater good
of the region and for regional prosperity.”
That unified spirit of purpose makes
Turner particularly proud of the Alliance.
“The counties and cities within the blueprint are collaborating and talking about
initiatives that will be good for these
areas,” he said. “And that’s something
you don’t see that too often.”
OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 5, 2015
ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE
13B
ATLANTA REGIONAL COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE ECONOMY
Commission listens to region’s new voices
“Beyond the idea that access to education is just, there is an economic side to
that as well,” she added. “We all want safe
and economically stable communities. If
the kids aren’t getting a good education in
the public schools that will impact how
we all live. It is very much related to the
vibrancy of the community.”
Nick Juliano, vice president of Resolute
Consulting and panel member, is concerned with access to transit and comprehensive transportation options.
“We worked on how to champion a
comprehensive transit vision for metro
Atlanta and the idea that came out that
was Advance Atlanta,” he said.
Advance Atlanta is a grassroots, citizendriven advocacy organization dedicated
to partnering with residents, businesses
and community partners to champion a
comprehensive regional transit system for
metro Atlanta and share information about
existing transit.
“If Atlanta is to be the best possible place
it can to live, work and play, and remain
competitive as a region, we have to tackle
transit in a very serious way,” he said, adding the Advance Atlanta group is forming
now and working to find solutions that
work for everyone, especially millennials
CLOSER LOOK
The purpose of the ARC’s Millennial
Advisory Panel:
R Guide ARC’s community engagement
planning regarding strategies and
techniques for engaging millennials.
R Engage a broad set of millennials
to serve as a sounding board for
ARC, providing input on topics and
issues of interest to them concerning
regional policy decisions.
R Inform ARC and its board about
millennial needs and expectations for
the regional plan.
Eights issues being addressed by the
Millennial Advisory Panel:
R Transportation
R Urban life/design
R Environment
R Education and human capital
R Social issues
R Economy
R Arts and culture
R Citizenship and involvement
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who are seeking better and more transportation options.
“Right now, we’re talking with metro
leaders and residents who share our vision.
In the coming months, we’re going to be
drilling into metro communities to host
grassroots events and build a coalition of
residents, businesses and civic groups to
work with our elected officials. My hope
is that everyone who believes in making
this region the best place it can be will be
a part of this effort,” he said.
“We definitely are so thrilled we undertook this project. It is the first time a
regional planning agency has done this
around the country,” Ralston said, adding
other agencies from around the country
have expressed interest in replicating it in
their areas.
“The reason we did this was not only
did we need to hear their voices for Atlanta’s regional plan for the year 2040 but
we also wanted to build a place at the
table permanently to bring these people
in, who have great ideas and passion for
the region,” Ralston said. “This is the only
way the Atlanta region is going to evolve
and become more of the kind of place that
will attract and retain this kind of young
talent that is key to our future success.”
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their level of interest, their passion about
the region and their creativity in approaching problems we have been trying to deal
with for decades,” Ralston said.
The panel is being led by ARC’s two
youngest board members, Brant Aden and
Amol Naik, who are guiding the panel in
presenting a new generation of ideas to the
ARC board.
“ARC is looking at who will be the
future leaders of Atlanta,” Millennial Advisory Panel member Bee Nguyen, who is the
founder of Athena’s Warehouse, a nonprofit that works with Atlanta’s underserved teenage girls. “They are trying to
engage the people who are going to be living in our city, leading our city and making
decisions for our city.”
The panel members participated in a
series of meet-ups, mixers and civic dinner parties to engage other millennials
and network with regional stakeholders.
They then formed eight action teams that
just recently proposed solutions to pressing regional challenges to a broad panel of
community leaders.
“We had all of our planning partners
and community partners there and they
have been responsive to the ideas presented,” Ralston said. “I would say they
have been heard.”
Nguyen, who is passionate about ensuring that Atlanta provides quality education for everybody across the board, took
the opportunity to express her concerns
related to education.
“We don’t want to continue this trend
of our only options being to send our kids
to private school or having to move to get
into a good school system. Those trends
need to stop because what this has created is pockets of extreme poverty,” she
said, adding there is a correlation between
poor education and incarceration in these
communities.
ty
// $2.4 billion in
economic development
ca
n
Ci
// Prix d’Excellence Award for
World’s Best
Rehabilitation Project
eri
// Gold and Silver Awards from
the International Economic
Development Council
Am
R
JOANN VITELLI
Bee Nguyen is the founder of Athena’s
Warehouse and active in ARC’s
Millennial Advisory Panel.
©
Earlier this year, Atlanta Regional Commission committed to engage new voices
in its planning process as they worked to
prepare Atlanta’s Regional Plan, a longrange vision for sustainable success in
the Atlanta region. The first group of new
voices — the millennials — represents a critical demographic that will influence, lead
and inherit the Atlanta region.
As part of its New Voices campaign, ARC
formed The Millennial Advisory Panel to
tap into the topics important to young people in their 20s and 30s since they represent the next generation of residents who
will live and work in the Atlanta region,
shaping and leading it for the next 30 to
40 years.
“The millennials will be driving decisions in the future,” said Julie Ralston,
director of ARC’s Center for Strategic Relations. “How we bring them into civic process is a critical question and a critical factor to future success.”
In its research about millennials, ARC
found this group is open to invitations to
get involved. They are comfortable in social
networking opportunities and enjoy environments that are conducive to meeting
new people with diverse backgrounds
as they vet ideas and exchange information. When ARC began to reach out, it was
pleasantly surprised by the interest.
“We thought there would be 75 to 100
people signing up to serve on this panel,”
she said. “We got more than 350 responses.
This group is so passionate about the region
and the topics that impact the region.”
Of those 350, ARC narrowed it down
to 135 millennials who represent a diverse
cross section geographically and ethnically, along with a variety of ages among
the 18- to 35-year-old group.
“We were very pleased and surprised at
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BY TONYA LAYMAN
Contributing Writer
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