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A Message from ACoRA Chairman and Director

Every day in Atlanta we see growth and change in our communities. Some communities show marked physical development and business activity; by sharp contrast, other neighborhoods show little or no new development and old businesses are now boarded up.

Atlanta Renewal Community/ACoRA
Board of Directors

George Howell, Chairman
Carol Jackson, Secretary
James Shelby
M.M. (Peggy) Harper
John O'Callaghan
Asha Jackson
Karl Barnes

The Atlanta Renewal Community team includes from left Senior Program Director Lisa Hawkins, Director William McFarland and Senior Program Director Catherine Foster-Rowell.

The Atlanta Renewal Community Coordinating Responsible Authority, Inc., (ACoRA or Atlanta Renewal Community) works to help those neighborhoods most economically distressed and underserved to grow and become places where residents and business owners can live and flourish.

The Atlanta Renewal Community was designated by the City of Atlanta as the non-profit corporation charged with facilitating the use of special federal business tax incentives and guiding the investment of more than $53 million in Title XX funds remaining from the City’s former 1994 Empowerment Zone designation. ACoRA’s seven member board of retained hired Enterprise Community Partners as its management entity in February of 2005.

Guided by our Integrated Strategic Plan and Tax Incentive Utilization Plan, the Atlanta Renewal Community has been quietly working to invest in the people, neighborhoods and businesses in 100 of Atlanta’s most distressed communities. Beginning with this RENEW! e-news blast, however, we share news about our progress to positively affect the quality of life in the Renewal Community.

We invite you to read on and learn about ACoRA’s partnership role in major community revitalization, social service, and business initiatives in 2006, and to see what’s ahead for the RC in 2007.

Warm Regards,

George Howell
ACoRA Chair

William McFarland
ACoRA Director

Putting Title XX Dollars to Work

During 2006, the Atlanta Renewal Community’s Board of Directors approved over
$20 million in investments. Some highlights are presented below.

More than $2 Million Funds New Villages
of Carver Family YMCA
The Atlanta Renewal Community collaborated with the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) to support development of a new $16 million full-service family YMCA at the Villages of Carver in south Atlanta.

ACoRA awarded a $2,250,000 grant to support the construction of a 55,000-SF facility to accommodate wellness, social, recreation and educational programs for more than 8,000 “Y” members in the area. The new Carver Family "Y" grand opening celebration was March 3.

Pryor Road Streetscape Project Targeted for 2007
In an ongoing effort to encourage commercial development in the RC targeted neighborhoods, ACoRA has provided $1.2 million to the Pryor Road Streetscape Project for revitalization of this corridor, including a major commercial center.

Part of the Historic Southside Redevelopment Plan, the Streetscape Project is designed to beautify Pryor Road and to implement traffic calming measures that will encourage pedestrian and cyclist traffic. The City of Atlanta Department of Public Works expects work on these enhancements to begin later this year.

A Sweet Gift to “Sweet Auburn”
The Historic District Development Corporation is currently proceeding with planning and predevelopment activities for the rehabilitation of the vacant Historic Herndon Plaza buildings located at 142-148 Auburn Avenue. The project is envisioned to provide approximately 15,000 SF of commercial office space on the top two floors with 3,067 SF of retail/museum space at street level. HDDC is actively working to leverage ACoRA’s $720,000 grant with additional funding sources, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, as well as private debt and equity.

First-Time Home Buyers Still Get Help
To assist Atlanta in increasing opportunities for affordable home ownership, the Atlanta Renewal Community contracted with the City of Atlanta Bureau of Housing to continue its Mortgage Assistance Program. More than $4 million has been allocated to provide down payment and closing costs assistance for residents of the former Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ) who want to become first-time homebuyers by purchasing homes located in the EZ.

Six Parks to Gain Greenspace, Other Improvements
The Atlanta Renewal Community is investing more than $700,000 in six neighborhoods to increase greenspace and improve recreation facilities.

In Vine City, residents can engage in more leisure time at a new neighborhood park. Currently undeveloped, the park site will undergo mass grading to improve drainage and accessibility. Additional enhancements include installing an internal walkway system, a fescue event lawn, and providing landscaping and sign upgrades.

Ongoing erosion and drainage problems will be eliminated at Four Corners Park in Peoplestown. Improvements also include playground enhancements, walkways and landscaping.

The Renewal Community will also fund needed improvements and redesign of Dunbar Recreation Center and the Rosa Burney Pool House in Mechanicsville. Plans include greenspace enhancements and programs for youth and senior citizens.

Other parks investments include Rawson-Washington Park, Chosewood Park, and Parkway-Angier Park. These neighborhood greenspace and recreation improvements, made through the City of Atlanta Bureau of Parks, are in support of the City’s broader parks improvement initiative that is currently underway.

After-School and Youth-to-Work Programs
Offer Life Skills
The Whitefoord Community Program, serving neighborhoods along Memorial Drive in northeast Atlanta, has received nearly $45,000 to offer 20 primary and middle school students three new projects: (1) After-School Enrichment (2) Bike Rite and (3) Intel Computer Club House.

A $45,000 award to The Covenant House Georgia (CHGA) -- whose outreach operation is centered in downtown Atlanta -- will enable the educational/vocation program to provide job preparation and financial literacy training to 20 youth. These special classes will lend to the program’s work with at-risk and homeless youth, ages 16 to 21, toward enabling them to become self-sufficient.

Other After-School and Youth-to-Work Programs funded include Beacon of Hope, The Study Hall at Emmaus House, Inc., and Future Seekers.

Land Acquisition Fund to Support Affordable Housing Development
ACoRA’s Board of Directors approved an investment of $3.5 million in loan funds to support land or building acquisition of property located in the former Atlanta Empowerment Zone for affordable or mixed-income multi-family, single-family, supportive, or mixed-use housing development.

Community Development Corporations that operate in the former Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ CDCs) and joint ventures/partnerships between nonprofit AEZ CDCs and for-profit entities will be eligible users of ACoRA funding.

ACoRA funding will provide subordinate debt in acquisition and pre-development loans made through the participation of community development corporations operating in the former Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ).

For more information about the Title XX funding and programs, contact Catherine Foster-Rowell, senior program director for Atlanta Renewal Community, 404/522.3970.

Promoting Business Development, Employment

2006 Commercial Revitalization
Deductions Awards
Eight diverse businesses and developers serving the Renewal Community received $12 million in federal tax deductions for their 2006 taxes. The CRD Program, run in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, provides recipients with a federal tax deduction against eligible expenses associated with the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of a commercial or mixed-use property located in the RC. Commercial Revitalization Deductions in 2006 for the eight projects ranged from $368,000 to $3 million.

CRD recipients can elect to take half of their awarded tax deduction in the fiscal year that their project is placed into service, or can pro-rate their tax deduction over a 10-year period.

“The Renewal Community’s Tax Incentive award proved a strong motivating factor in our decision to step forward and become the first organization to undertake development on Boulevard in the Old Fourth Ward,” says Gabriella Nanci, head of Carmel Investments LLC.

This year’s approval of ACoRA’s CRD recommendations by DCA brings the total allocation since 2004 to $30 million that has supported development activity for 21 businesses.

Tax Season Can Equal Business Savings
It is tax season, and that could mean federal tax savings for many businesses in the Renewal Community. ACoRA has free information and guidance on how businesses that operate in the 100 targeted RC neighborhoods may qualify for tax savings starting with the 2006 tax year.

Operation Street Beat Team Has
Tax Savings News
Last fall, the Atlanta Renewal Community dispatched an Operation Street Beat team to visit small businesses in Mechanicsville, Summerhill, Pryor Road/University Avenue business corridor and the Mall West End to inform owners about tax incentives available to RC businesses.

Over the coming months, the Street Beat team wants to speak with neighborhood community groups and merchant associations. Please contact ACoRA if you know of any organization that will host an RC Tax Incentive meeting.

For more information about the tax incentives, contact Lisa L. Hawkins, senior program director for the Atlanta Renewal Community, at 404/522-3970 or lhawkins@enterprisecommunity.org.

The Atlanta Renewal Community 2007 Agenda:

ACoRA Board and Staff will continue to achieve its mission by aggressively marketing RC Tax Incentives and facilitating the leveraged investment of Title XX dollars “in a manner that increases the capacity of residents to be self-sufficient and assist them in revitalizing and strengthening the physical environments in which they live.”

Anticipated action during the first half of 2007 includes the start of ACoRA’s owner-occupied rehabilitation program and asthma treatment and education initiative and board approval for investments supporting, among other things, a housing information and resource center, neighborhood-based public safety programs, and the provision of operating support for community-based organizations operating in the former AEZ.

Atlanta Renewal Community/ACORA Neighborhoods
Adamsville Almond Park Arial Heights Atlanta University Audubon Forest Bankhead Bankhead-Bolton Bankhead-Courts Bedford Pine Bemar La Villa Benteen Ben Hills Acres Blair Villa/Poole Creek Bolton Bolton Hill Boulder Park Boulevard Heights Bowen Homes Briar Glen Browns Mill Park Butler Street Cabbage Town Campbellton Rd. Capital View Capital View Manor Capitol Homes Carey Park Carroll Heights Carver Hill Carver Homes Cascade Heights Castleberry Hill Center Hill Chalet Woods Chosewood Park Collier Heights Custer McDonough Guice Dixie Hills	Downtown Eagan Homes East Atlanta East Lake Edgewood Englewood Manor English Avenue Fairburn Heights Florida Heights Fort McPherson Fort Valley George High Glenrose Heights Gilbert Gardens Grady/Antoine Graves Grant Park Grove Park Hammond Park Harris Chiles Hartland Terrace Harvel Homes Community Herndon Homes Heritage Valley High Points Hills Park Hunter Hills Ivan Hill John Hope Homes Jonesboro North Jonesboro South Joyland Just Us Ashview Heights Kings Forest Kirkwood Lakewood Lakewood Heights Laurens Valley Leila Valley	Meadow Brook Forest Mechanicsville Monroe Heights Mozely Park Mt. Gilead Woods Norwood Manor Oakcliff Oakland City Old Fourth Ward Orchard Knob Pamond Park Penelope Neighbors Peoplestown Perry Homes Peyton Forest Pittsburgh Polar Rock Rebel Valley Forest Reynoldstown Riverside Rockdale Rosedale Heights Scott Crossing South Atlanta Southwest Atlanta Summerhill Swallow Circle/Baywood Sylvan Hills Thomasville Heights Vine City Washington Park Watts Road West End West Lake West View Woodland Hills Venetian Hill Whittier Village

The Atlanta Renewal Community was designated by the City of Atlanta as the non-profit corporation charged with facilitating the use of special federal business tax incentives and guiding the investment of more than $53 million in Title XX funds remaining from the City’s former 1994 Empowerment Zone designation. For more information call 404/522.3970 or visit www.atlantacora.org