ON THE AGENDA MEETINGS The Atlanta City Council meets Feb. 5 and Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. at City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave. For agendas and more information, visit citycouncil.atlantaga.gov. NPU-E, which covers Midtown, Ansley Park, Home Park and Loring Heights, meets the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Peachtree Christian Church, 1580 Peachtree St. The Decatur City Commission meets in open session on the first and third Mondays of each month at City Hall, 509 North McDonough Street, at 7:30 p.m. Midtown Alliance will hold its annual meeting on Feb. 13, 7 a.m. at the Fox Theatre with keynote by transportation expert Janette Sadik-Khan. Tickets are available now at midtownatl.com. NEWS MARTA has applied for a federal transportation grant to fund a 9.4-mile bus rapid transit line connecting the Arts Center station to Summerhill, which is part of the massive redevelopment of the Turner Field area. The bus would use a dedicated lane, have 30 stops and a one-way travel times of 16 minutes. The estimated cost: $48.6 million. The City of Atlanta has reached an agreement with the Atlanta Public Schools to transfer deeds for 50 properties to the school system. APS plans to sell the properties for potential mixed-use developments. Atlanta Public Schools will make up instructional time lost during recent winter weather closures by adding 30 minutes to the end of the day from Jan. 29 through March 30. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration has proposed legislation to eliminate cash bonds to secure release from the City of Atlanta Detention Center.
8 February 2018 |
Amazon Primed
Atlanta makes Top 20 finalist list for HQ2 By Collin Kelley Atlanta tops the finalist list – at least alphabetically – for Amazon’s second headquarters campus. The online retail giant has released a list of 20 cities competing for what has been dubbed HQ2. Along with Atlanta, this list includes Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Montgomery County in Maryland, Nashville, Newark, New York City, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Toronto and Washington D.C. If HQ2 were to choose metro Atlanta or Georgia, it could mean a staggering $5 billion investment and 50,000 jobs. The state and city have also offered up more than $1 billion in incentives and infrastructure improvements to sweeten the deal. The Georgia Department of Economic Development has offered up a list of potential building sites for the 8 million square foot Amazon campus, with an area in Downtown near Philips Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium known as The Gulch being a top contender. The Gulch, a below street level dead zone of parking lots, has been speculated to be the prime spot after the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported on an Oct. 30 filing with the city to develop the property. The undisclosed party filed a plan to develop 9.3 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail space, a 1,500-room hotel and 2,100 apartments at The Gulch. A statement from Amazon said the company had received bids from 238 cities and regions across North America. “Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Holly Sullivan of Amazon Public Policy said in a media statement. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.” Amazon is expected to announce its choice for HQ2 by the end of the year.
New mayor, city council sworn in at ceremony New Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (bottom photo), Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore (top photo) and the members of the Atlanta City Council were sworn in during a ceremony at Morehouse College on Jan. 2. New and returning members of the council posed at City Hall following the swearing-in (left photo) including Carla Smith, Marci Collier Overstreet, Natalyn Archibong, Cleta Winslow, Felicia Moore, Amir Farokhi, Michael Julian Bond, Matt Westmoreland, Andrea Boone, Joyce Sheperd, Ivory Lee Young Jr., Andre Dickens, Jennifer Ide, J.P. Matzigkeit, Howard Shook and Dustin Hillis.
At l a n t a I N t o w n Pa p e r. c o m