Spotlight on Presenting Committee Member: Atlanta Development Authority
The Environmental Trade Mission and Conference™ presenting committee is made up of organizations that are dedicated to exposing businesses and governments throughout the Southeast to the latest clean technologies from around the world. One organization that has been pivotal in the ongoing success of ETM™ since its inception is the Atlanta Development Authority.
The Atlanta Development Authority is the city of Atlanta’s official economic development agent. Its mission is to retain and create jobs, preserve affordable housing and support redevelopment in underserved submarkets. Operating divisions at ADA include the Tax Allocation District department and the Housing Finance department. A third operating department is Commerce and Entrepreneurship, which is solely focused on business attraction and retention.
Today the city relies on ADA for 100 percent of its economic development strategy and implementation. ADA’s business engagement team consists of seven highly trained professionals with extensive experience in business attraction and retention. Director of Commerce and Entrepreneurship Charles Whatley reports directly to ADA’s interim president, Ernestine Garey, who sits on the Mayor’s cabinet.
"The Environmental Trade Mission is a very effective method for recruiting green companies," says Whatley. "Unlike a tradeshow where companies are basically on a fishing expedition, the ETM matches companies with local governments and other companies who have already expressed interest in their product. The ETM folks do the leg work so that companies know in advance who they are going to meet with."
With the help of ADA’s business engagement team, the city has seen success. Since 2007 ADA has generated more than 700 business relocation or expansion leads, resulting in 259 projects that led to 35 business wins for the city of Atlanta. The total number of jobs created or pledged from these firms is 4,317.
ADA seeks not only to attract new employers to the city, but to help the businesses that are already here by solving problems, advocating on their behalf and providing financial support. ADA and the City of Atlanta have a 25-year tradition of citywide small business lending. In 2009, there were 22 small-business transactions through which ADA disbursed $2.9 million in loans and grants and leveraged $4 million in total capital investment, mostly in downtown Atlanta.
In addition, ADA offers Atlanta’s entire business community customer support and solutions. Many of Atlanta’s employers, such as Kraft, Turner, Unilever, Equifax, and Country Home Bakers, appreciate visits from ADA representatives. This sends a signal that Atlanta values their contribution and wants to help them solve problems and be successful.
The organization has been the recipient of countless awards, the latest of which was from the Council for Development Finance Agencies for the Atlanta BeltLine project, a smart growth parks and transit project in urban Atlanta. ADA and the Atlanta BeltLine jointly won the Nation's Best Bond Deal of 2009.
ADA created Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. in 2006 to implement the Atlanta BeltLine project. The Atlanta BeltLine is a $2.8 billion redevelopment project that will shape the way Atlanta grows throughout the next several decades. The project provides a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown and connecting 45 neighborhoods directly to each other. The Atlanta BeltLine is the most comprehensive economic development effort ever undertaken in the city of Atlanta and among the largest, most wide-ranging urban redevelopment projects currently underway in the United States.
ADA also has a strong partnership with the City of Atlanta Office of Sustainability and is often called upon to develop implementation strategies for sustainability projects. ADA is working closely with the offices of Sustainability, Planning, Public Works and Watershed Management to create eco-industrial parks to encourage green industries and to support the city’s Zero-Waste Initiative. ADA is an integral part of developing the blueprint that will ensure Atlanta's world-class environmental sustainability. ADA partners with Sustainable Atlanta to connect businesses, organizations, institutions and residents to develop solutions and implement action plans to address the challenges and opportunities inherent in the relationship between the environment and the economy.
Leaders from ADA are highly involved in the planning and programming of the Environmental Trade Mission and Conference 2010™. We encourage you to seek them out during the conference to learn how their services could potentially be of benefit to your organization. To learn more, visit their website at www.atlantada.com.
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