Atlanta 2016 Roundup & Outlook

Stephen Cannon was named chief executive officer of AMB Group, LLC effective February 1, assuming the day-to- day leadership of the company’s for-profit businesses. Cannon leads all business operations of the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons; Atlanta United of Major League Soccer; Atlanta Falcons Stadium Company, the developer of Mercedes-Benz Stadium that is scheduled to open in 2017; PGA TOUR Superstore; and Mountain Sky Guest Ranch. Prior to joining AMB Group, Cannon served as president and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) and was responsible for leading operations that generated record sales with annual revenues exceeding $20 billion. During his tenure, MBUSA achieved a first-ever No. 1 ranking on the American Customer Satisfaction Index and was also lauded as one of the best places to work by Fortune Magazine five years in a row. Cannon oversaw MBUSA’s successful headquarters relocation from New Jersey to the metro Atlanta area, in addition to crafting a sports sponsorship strategy that closely aligned the premium brand with properties reflective of its category leadership and brand position.

As a senior partner and President of Daniel, Pat oversees the firm’s business operations, development and investment activities. Prior to joining Daniel in 2010, he served as President of Crescent Resources, LLC Commercial Properties division where he was responsible for oversight of the Charlotte-based firm’s commercial properties portfolio which included significant investments in Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa and Washington, D.C. Prior to Crescent Resources, Pat served as the senior regional development officer at Trammell Crow Company’s Atlanta-based midsouth development division. With more than 28 years of client-focused real estate experience, Henry has led teams in developing nearly 20 million square feet of property valued at over $3 billion in markets across the Southern and Mid-Atlantic United States.

Mack is founder and principal of Gateway Development Services, a full service real estate development company based in Atlanta, GA. Since its inception in 1996, Gateway has developed over 2,000,000 square feet of office, research, residential and retail space; primarily on and around university campuses. Representative projects include: • Centergy, a 1,000,000 SF office, research, retail and residential project on Fifth Street, adjacent to Georgia Tech’s campus • Technology Enterprise Park, a multi-building bio-technology park in midtown Atlanta • WestEdge, a planned 2,500,000 SF master planned, mixed use project in Charleston, SC, located adjacent to the Medical University of South Carolina. Mack graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management, followed by a Master of Science in Management. A member of the Georgia Tech Track & Field Team, he was a scholarship athlete as both an undergraduate and graduate student. He is involved in various organizations, including serving as a board member of CIFAL Atlanta (the North American office of the United Nations Institute of Training & Research), the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Foundation (Chair), the First United Methodist Church Foundation and serves on the Planning Commission of the City of LaGrange, GA. Mack resides in LaGrange, GA with his wife Holly and three children; Jordan, Mack and Robert.

Rocky is a Partner in the firm's Real Estate practice group where he focuses on real estate development and finance. Within his real estate practice, Rocky serves his clients through acquisition, finance, leasing, development, operation and disposition for a number of areas including hotels, multi-family developments, resorts, golf courses, country clubs, stadiums, and marinas. In addition to his real estate practice, Rocky also has more than 18 years of commercial mortgage-backed securities loan origination experience.

Malaika Rivers is the Founder & President of Pontem Resources. She helps businesses and governments work together to imagine and build great places. She works with a wide variety of changemakers — from CEOs to city mayors — to find cost-sharing strategies for pressing development needs. With a focus on transportation, mobility, connectivity, and placemaking, Malaika’s work builds physical infrastructure as well as sustainable organizations to support it. Having worked for and with real estate developers, consulting firms, governments, and planning organizations, she crafts strategies that bring vision, process, funding, and politics together to achieve healthy ROIs. Malaika’s work includes the billion-dollar, sports-anchored, mixed-use development models of Centennial Yards (Atlanta Hawks) and The Battery Atlanta (Atlanta Braves). She is the foremost expert on Community Improvement Districts (CIDs). Having formed and led CIDs over decades, Malaika advises on how these development tools effectively channel infrastructure funding into commercial centers. Malaika is a 100 Influential Women to Know, a Georgia 500, and a 25 Power Women to Watch. She received her B.S. from Virginia Tech and her C.M.E. from Harvard Business School. She frequently contributes to various media outlets and publishes forward-thinking reports, including how CIDs may be positioned at the forefront of smart cities and digital transformation. Malaika’s drive to conquer challenging terrain for her clients extends to her personal life. Whether hiking mountains or exploring deserts, Malaika is in constant pursuit of the way forward.

Keith T. Parker, AICP, is the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), the nation’s 9th largest transit system that includes heavy rail, bus and paratransit services. With an annual budget of $1 billion, MARTA provides more than 400,000 passenger boardings a day. Parker took the helm of MARTA on December 10, 2012.

Prior to Leithead forming his own governmental relations, entitlement, and consulting firm, he was responsible for leading Cousins Properties development efforts as they relate to entitlement issues throughout the Atlanta region. He served as liaison for Cousins with the various county and city governmental entities and project related community-based organizations. He has 28 years of experience in the Atlanta commercial and real estate market and has leased some five million square feet of office and retail space. As a founding partner with Childress Klein Properties, Mr. Leithead was instrumental in the operation of the Atlanta Galleria, one of Atlanta’s premier mixed-use developments. He was a key participant in the development of Cobb Galleria Centre – a 300,000 square-foot county owned convention center. In 1998, Leithead formed Urban One Associates, a development and transportation consulting firm, working with Midtown Alliance, Perimeter Center, Gwinnett and Cobb Counties, and others in the formation of several new Community Improvement Districts (CIDs). He was a principal in the development of Ridenour, a 90-acre “Smart Growth” community in northwest Cobb County – which received the Atlanta Regional Commission’s “Development of Excellence” award in 1999. From 2009 to 2012, Mr. Leithead served two terms as Chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, a 39- member board that steers the planning and development for the 10-county metro Atlanta region. He also served on the ARC board from 2000 to 2012, and was Chair of its Transportation & Air Quality Committee from 2007-2009. Leithead is the Chairman of the Cumberland Community Improvement District, formed in 1988, a self-taxing group of commercial property owners that have leveraged nearly $140 million in local dollars into an estimated $2.5 billion in capital improvements. In 1994, he served as Chairman of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce and also received the Lockheed Corporation Management Association’s “Manager of the Year” award. Additionally, he serves on the Boards of Directors of the Fulton County Perimeter Community Improvement District and the North Fulton Community Improvement District. He is past Chairman of the Board of the Walker School. Mr. Leithead is a resident of Fulton County and graduated with a B.A. from Washington and Lee University.

Tony Wilbert is president and founder of Wilbert Public Relations Co., an upstart communications firm specializing in real estate. Tony founded Wilbert PR Co. after selling his interest in The Wilbert Group, a firm he founded in 2009 that grew to become the fourth-largest independent PR agency in Atlanta. Before venturing out on his own, Tony created and ran the National Real Estate Practice at Edelman and worked corporate communications at Home Depot Inc. Real estate is a natural focus for Wilbert PR Co. because Tony covered commercial real estate at Atlanta Business Chronicle, National Real Estate Investor and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1996-2004. He currently satisfies his need to write about real estate through his blog Skyline Views (skylineviews.rocks). In 2015, Duke Long named Tony to his list, “Top 10 Most Influential Online Commercial Real Estate People."

Norman Radow’s vision when establishing The RADCO Companies in 1994 was borne out of a lifelong passion to make neighborhoods and people’s lives better. RADCO’s first project was the redevelopment of a distressed 53-story Atlanta hotel, office, and condominium tower, which later became the Four Seasons Hotel. The notable turnaround project put the company on the map and more than 100 successful projects later, RADCO remains a fearless, successful, and flexible leader in the real estate industry. Prior to founding The RADCO Companies, Norman was a seasoned real estate litigation, workout, and transactional lawyer. Awarded a Juris Doctor by New York Law School in 1981 and a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Plattsburgh in 1978, he is licensed to practice in both New York and Georgia. As a Chairman of the Kennesaw State University Foundation Board of Trustees, Norman oversaw the expansion of the 33,000-student university in metropolitan Atlanta. During his 13-year tenure, the campus doubled in size with the addition of $500 million in new buildings that he helped finance and develop. Norman is currently a member of the New York Law School Board of Trustees and previously served as an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law. He is a dynamic speaker and real estate industry expert that has been featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and more.

Travis is part of a team which is responsible for Portman’s U.S. office portfolio and has responsibility for new office projects acquisition, leasing and disposition. Since 2014, Travis has completed leasing transactions totaling over $1 Billion in gross value, approximately $2 Billion in capitalization and disposition of new office, and involved in the development of over 2.5 million square feet of new office. Travis is a member of NAIOP, ULI, and was a founding member of an Atlanta-based Executive Roundtable that fosters discussions on current industry issues and topics. He has been recognized by NAIOP as “Top Producer” for 2014 and 2018, #2 Producer in 2016 and 2020, by Real Estate Forum’s 40 Under 40 in 2014 and by CoStar as a 2013-2020 Power Broker. Travis graduated with a B.B.A. in real estate from the University of Georgia, and is a licensed Broker in Georgia and North Carolina. He has been involved in commercial real estate since 2005.

As Regional Managing Partner, John Leonard oversees the performance of the entire Atlanta office including overall revenue, business development, recruitment, training, ongoing team management, and operational and financial success. Prior to working with Franklin Street, Mr. Leonard served as Owner and Broker for Multi Housing Group where he concentrated on the development and brokerage of student housing projects focused mainly in the Southeast. Before Multi Housing Group, Mr. Leonard worked for Marcus & Millichap serving in several capacities including First Vice President/Regional Manager for Atlanta, Georgia and Regional Manager in Las Vegas, Nevada. He began his career in commercial real estate as a Co-Owner/Broker of a Prudential Real Estate office in Clifton Park, New York. Extremely active in the commercial real estate community, Mr. Leonard currently serves as an Honorary Board Member of Georgia State University’s Real Estate Department, a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Designee, a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC), the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). He also has been recognized with several awards including Who’s Who: Top 100 Power Brokers by the Atlanta Business Chronicle from 2007 to 2014. Mr. Leonard received his Mini-Master of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from J. Mack College of Business at Georgia State University, his Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix in Las Vegas, Nevada, and his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at State University of New York at Potsdam in Potsdam, New York. He is a licensed real estate broker in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Nevada, and New York.

Jeffrey Graham entered the Property Tax Consulting industry with The Stallings Group in 2008 as a Consultant. He aided in the growth of The Stallings Group’s residential property tax appeal portfolio, and worked closely with the Stallings Group team to build his knowledge base in the commercial property side of the industry. Commercial property tax appeals became the focus, and Jeffrey Graham managed accounts for reputable clients such as Hines, Cbre, and Colliers. In 2012 The Stallings Group was sold to Paradigm Tax Group, at which point Jeffrey Graham was offered a position specializing in Commercial property tax appeals around the Southeast. After two years received a promotion to the level of Managing Consultant, which focused on the larger accounts with national portfolios of property. In that position he was involved with client management, new client sales, team building, strategic planning for the Southeast office. Jeffrey Graham consistently led the Southeast office in new clients sales, and learned a great deal about the marketing side of the industry. In 2016 Jeffrey Graham along with Bill Graham formed The Graham Group, which is a southeastern based property tax consulting firm. Jeffrey Graham has taken the roll of managing partner; along with managing client’s partners with Bill in the Growth of the client base, team, and reputation of The Graham Group. Jeffrey Graham and The Graham Group represent clients with Office, retail, Multi-family, Hotel, and Industrial portfolios. Jeffrey Represents clients with portfolios ranging from a single property to well over a hundred. Jeffrey specializes in property valuation thru multiple valuation methods such as Income analysis, comparable property analysis, Sales analysis, and cost of development analysis. Jeffrey has achieved many property value reductions over the years, and worked to partner with property owners and managers to ensure their property tax burdens reduced to favorable levels. One specific property reduction success story involves a Midtown Atlanta trophy office tower; the Fair Market Value of the property was lowered nearly 60 million dollars, which resulted in a tax savings of roughly 1.1 Million dollars. Jeffrey Graham is driven to see The Graham Group grow and build long lasting client relationships. He strives to be an active partner with taxing jurisdictions around the southeast, and continue to build his knowledge base of local legislation and tax laws.

Betsy has 20 years of experience in the interior architecture industry as a designer, project manager and principal. She is a Vice President and the Director of Interior Design for HOK in Atlanta as well as one of the global leaders for HOK’s interior design practice. Betsy has successfully delivered services for a wide variety of interiors project types, including corporate headquarters, non-profit and institutional. She is known for her expertise in creating people-centered spaces supporting overarching organizational goals for clients such as Porsche Cars of North America, Equifax, Manhattan Associates and Georgia State University. Her projects have been published and won significant awards from the Georgia Chapters’ of American Society of Interior Design and Urban Land Institute. She is highly engaged in the real estate industry and has served on CoreNet Global’s Atlanta Chapter Board since 2009, participated in Corporate Real Estate Women’s Atlanta, the Atlanta Chapter of International Facilities Management Association, and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. Betsy has done multiple speaking engagements for local and global real estate entities on workplace strategy and design. She is passionate about the arts in Atlanta and served on the Board of Directors and as the President for The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. Betsy graduated from Florida State University with honors, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design and Visual Arts.