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Investing in Airbnb rental properties can be a pretty lucrative business. Over the past decade, many investors have earned substantial profits by investing in this popular rental strategy. Many travelers…
Before you start investing in residential real estate, you need to know how lucrative a certain property for sale is expected to be. There is no better way of analyzing…The Allen Morris Company has named CF Real Estate Services as the management company of Star Metals Residences, as pre-leasing begins at the residential component of the $344 million Star Metals mixed-use development in West Midtown. The initial phase of Star Metals Residences’ luxury apartment homes is expected to welcome its first residents this summer. When completed, the project will have 409 luxury apartments. Featuring studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, rents start at $1,300 per month. Amenities include a rooftop bar and lounge, game room, fire pits, outdoor dog run and grooming area, and a fitness center opening onto the pool terrace. There will also be restaurant and retail space on the first floor. For pre-leasing information, visit starmetalsresidences.com.
Atlanta real estate agent to the stars, Brandi Hunter-Lewis, has joined Compass. With more than $27 million in sales in 2019, she was the top-ranked luxury agent at Keller Williams in Atlanta. Hunter-Lewis is the go-to Realtor for NFL and NBA athletes and Atlanta’s musicians and reality TV stars, including Kandi Burruss, Cardi B, and Fetty Wap.
Engel & Völkers Atlanta has announced the addition of The Robinson Group under the leadership of Lisa Robinson to the firm’s luxury brokerage division. The top producing group of 10 advisors specialize in luxury residential listing sales in Atlanta’s top neighborhoods and will continue its focus under the Engel & Völkers Atlanta brand.
Pellerin Real Estate has released renderings for The Marbut & The Minor, a mixed-use development on Flat Shoals Avenue in East Atlanta Village. The two-building project will include a new 25,000-square-foot building with street level retail space with 20 apartments above and a redevelopment 12,600 structure that once housed the Marbut & Minor Mercantile Store.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden has rescheduled its annual Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour to Sept. 12-13. The event, usually a Mother’s Day weekend staple, will feature tours of private gardens around metro Atlanta. Get tickets at atlantabg.org.
The post Real Estate Briefs: Star Metals Residences, The Marbut & The Minor, plus more appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.
Election workers across the state are still tallying an unprecedented 1.1 million absentee ballots received for the June 9 primary election in Georgia, which proved chaotic and confusing in metro Atlanta.
You can see the unofficial election numbers for Fulton County at this link and for DeKalb County at this link.
In Fulton and DeKalb counties, long lines due to a reduced number of poll locations, long lines due to COVID-19 social distancing, malfunctioning machines, poll worker confusion, and not enough provisional ballots outraged voters. Polls were kept open until 9 p.m. in Fulton, while at least one station in DeKalb was open past 10 p.m.
While voters decried the broken process and expressed grave concerns about voter suppression on social media, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger blamed ineptness on county election officials and said his office would investigate.
Local officials placed the blame squarely on Raffensperger, including DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond.
Local leaders pushed back on the secretary of state’s comments, including DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond. “The Election Day issues relating to the use of state-purchased voting machines represent an attack on the democratic process. The Secretary of State’s office has alleged these issues resulted from a failure of county leadership. If there was a failure of leadership, it starts where the buck should stop, at the top. The eradication of any ‘learning curve’ rests squarely at the feet of the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his office,” Thurmond said in a statement.
The post Ballots still being counted after chaotic primary election in metro Atlanta appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.
The Alzheimer’s Association is inviting all community residents to a live webinar – “A Talk with the Experts – How Diet and Nutrition Impacts Risk of Dementia”. The live online event will take place on Thursday, June 18 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
The panel of experts includes:
Hugh Acheson, former Top Chef judge and owner and operator of several Georgia restaurants including Empire State South and Five and Ten
Dr. Lisa M. Renzi-Hammond, Neuroscientist, Assistant Professor, Institute of Gerontology, University of Georgia, College of Public Health
Renae Brown, Chief Dietitian, Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services
Mary Caldwell, Helpline and Early Stage Program Manager, Alzheimer’s Association
“It is critical for me to learn more about the positive impact that good food has on people living with the immense burden of Alzheimer’s disease”, added Hugh Acheson. “As a chef, I know that nourishment can bring comfort and relief to those living through the anxiety of dementia. As a son of someone afflicted with Alzheimer’s I know food can make a difference.”
June marks Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, an opportunity to hold a conversation about the brain, and share the fact that Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are a major public health issue. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, eating a heart-healthy diet benefits both your body and your brain.
“We are extremely excited to have this amazing group of experts that can provide our community residents valuable information that can reduce risk”, added Linda Davidson, Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Association, Georgia Chapter. “This event is for everyone, if you are 18 or 90, healthy lifestyle interventions to benefit your health, including your brain, can start today”, she added.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, changes in the brain can occur years before the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s appear. These early brain changes suggest a possible “window of opportunity” to reduce risk or delay dementia symptoms.
The Alzheimer’s Association launched a two-year clinical trial researching lifestyle intervention on protecting brain health and potentially reducing the risk of dementia. The U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) trial will test if combining physical activity, healthy nutrition, social and intellectual challenge and improved self-management of medical conditions can protect cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline.
More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease – the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Additionally, more than 16 million family members and friends provide care to people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. In Georgia alone, there are more than 150,000 people living with the disease and 540,000 caregivers.
To register for the event, visit alz.org/Georgia or call 1-800-272-3900.
Facts and Figures: (http://www.alz.org/facts/)
Alzheimer’s disease is the fifth-leading cause of death in Georgia.
More than five million Americans are living with the disease, including 150,000 Georgia residents — a number estimated to grow to as many as 190,000 by year 2025.
More than 16 million family and friends, including 540,000 in Georgia, provide unpaid care to people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias in the United States.
In 2019, friends and family of those with Alzheimer’s in Georgia provided an estimated 615 million hours of unpaid care, a contribution valued more than $8 billion.
As of June 5, 2020, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (PPPFA) is now law. Among other things, the Act makes it easier for recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to qualify for forgiveness. That’s important to the millions of small businesses that received PPP loans.
Let’s go through some of the changes. You can look up the new law here.
Data on COVID-19 can be confusing, sometimes even conflicting, and state reports of cases in Georgia have created an unusual level of controversy.
Nevertheless, a national scorecard on COVID trends shows that Georgia is making progress on combating the virus.
Read more at Georgia Health News
When University of Georgia professor Jason Locklin met Daniel Carraway over 10 years ago, neither of them knew their professional relationship would result in a substantial economic development investment in Athens.
Back in 2008, Locklin, who is now director of UGA’s New Materials Institute, was an assistant professor in chemistry and engineering at UGA. Carraway, a UGA alumnus and serial entrepreneur, was looking at universities, trying to find the perfect spot for one of his employees to attend graduate school.
“We met and hit it off, and after that he decided he wanted the student to work for me,” Locklin recalled. “We started working on projects together and haven’t stopped since.”
About five years ago, Carraway co-founded RWDC, a company to commercialize microbially degradable polymers, which are combined with other materials to make resins, from which single-use articles are made. These polymers, co-developed by Carraway, Locklin and Dr. Branson Ritchie, aim to solve the environmental problem of petroleum-derived single-use plastics.
“Petroleum-derived plastics are a health and environmental nightmare,” said Ritchie. “And the solution is microbially degradable materials. A straw, a cup, a plate, a knife, a donut box. It’s your magazine coated paper. It’s your Tupperware container, etc. Look through your life. Our goal is to replace the items you use every day and discard, one by one with materials that don’t damage the environment.”
In their current state, plastics can take multiple centuries to disintegrate in a process called micronization. Petroleum-derived plastic products manufactured since the 1950s still exist in some form in landfills and as trash on the Earth and in the sea.
“No one knows how long the micronized particles that are not visible to us will persist on our planet, but our research is indicating that these tiny particles may be the most dangerous forms of environmentally persistent plastics,” said Ritchie.
To provide a sense of scope, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans per year, according to a 2015 landmark study by UGA professor Jenna Jambeck, who leads the institute’s Center for Circular Materials Management in the College of Engineering. Jambeck’s research also found that all plastic waste generated between 1950 and 2015, including plastics sent to recycling centers, totaled 6,300 million metric tons, of which 9% were recycled.
Locklin’s and Ritchie’s solution to the plastic problem uses plant-based sources. “The beauty of the material is it’s truly a circle,” said Ritchie. “You use a product manufactured with one of our resins, and when you’re done with it can be discarded into a waste system where microbes chew it up and turn it back into carbon dioxide and water.”
The ongoing development of resins, made from the base polymer, to create various single-use articles fuels the partnership between the New Materials Institute and RWDC. “Every single product uses a different set of ingredients based on how long that product has to be useful – shelf life to refrigerator – how fast it needs to break down and where it’s going to break down,” said Ritchie. “For a disposable good, the quicker it disintegrates after it has been discarded, the better.”
Collaboration is key
One of UGA’s strengths is its interdisciplinary approach to research. Locklin is a polymer chemist. Ritchie is a veterinary researcher and director of the Infectious Diseases Laboratory in the College of Veterinary Medicine; he has a Ph.D. in medical microbiology. They met one another shortly after Locklin arrived at UGA when Locklin’s polymer expertise was needed for a problem Ritchie was trying to resolve.
“With 17 schools and colleges, the breadth of research expertise and insight UGA can bring to bear on a problem is incredible,” said Derek Eberhart, executive director of UGA’s Innovation Gateway, a key Innovation District partner. It was Eberhart who suggested Ritchie work with Locklin on the project he was researching.
Crystal Leach, director of industry collaborations at UGA’s Office of Research, said there are multiple touchpoints between UGA and RWDC, including collaborations with research and identification of talent. “That’s the best sort of partnership,” Leach said. “And the founder [Carraway] is a pretty inspiring guy. He is truly a visionary, and he has to be making a business prosper at a time like this.”
Athens’ Mayor Kelly Girtz has followed the progress of RWDC and played a role in bringing the new manufacturing plant to Athens. “As soon as I knew they were looking for space, I reached out to them. This was before I was even mayor and was just a county commissioner. It’s enormously beneficial to Athens, particularly right now when we’re in a crisis period, to know there will be a couple hundred high-wage jobs coming to town.”
The partnership between RWDC, which is planning on creating 200 jobs in Athens, and the New Materials Institute puts Athens in the center of a new economy that will have global impact.
And this new economy will be based on biologically degradable disposable products, according to Ritchie. “From our perspective, with the correct infrastructure, what we are preparing to achieve is an applied definition of economic development.”
Girtz added that Athens is an attractive place for biotech in general, given the relatively low cost of doing business here and the labor pool that exists here for every level of manufacturing. “I love that Athens is building this entire ecosystem with research and public sector starting on campus. Then the flame is being lit as it moves to places like the Innovation District then into our great community for its home. It’s really the perfect Athens economic development story.”
Advantage Capital today announced a $2 million investment in Watkinsville-based GAXtracts, an active pharmaceutical ingredients company focusing on manufacturing and processing products from industrial hemp. The investment, which was made in connection with the Georgia Agribusiness and Rural Jobs Act (GARJA), will support the company with working capital and financing to purchase new equipment, as well as bring 30 new jobs to the local community as the company expands.
“We are excited about this investment. This partnership will allow us to advance our agricultural initiatives in the state of Georgia and provide much-needed jobs in the rural market,” said Don Barden, CEO of GAXtracts.
GAXtracts is Advantage Capital’s fifth investment in connection with the GARJA program. Advantage has now invested $15 million in small businesses across Georgia, which are helping to spur new job creation and economic growth in the state’s rural communities.
“GAXtracts has the type of growth potential that we seek out when partnering with businesses,” said Abhi Chandrasekhara of Advantage Capital. “We customized our investment to put GAXtracts in the best possible position to continue its sustained growth. I am excited to work with our portfolio companies statewide to help them grow, hit the next level, and create lasting economic impact in their local communities and beyond.”
The GARJA program provides growth capital for small businesses such as GAXtracts and stimulates economic expansion in rural parts of the state that have not seen the same kind of economic prosperity urban areas have in recent years.
“When the General Assembly passed GARJA in 2017, they did so with the intent of growing small, rural businesses. GAXtracts is a great example of the program at work,” said State Representative Marcus Wiedower.
As GAXtracts continues to grow with market demand it plans to expand into a new facility in Union Point, bringing jobs to another rural community in a distressed part of Georgia where nearly 1 in 3 people live in poverty.
The hemp market has grown tremendously since the passage of the Federal Farm Bill in 2018 and the Georgia General Assembly passed the industrial hemp protection bill in 2019. Both pieces of legislation lifted regulations, legalizing the crop for cultivation purposes. Over the last few years, the market has grown from a $600 million industry to a forecasted $4 billion industry by 2022.
While GAXtracts’ primary focus is the production of CBD and hemp-derived products, the company has been producing a medical grade hand sanitizer since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, helping to fill an urgent market need for hospitals, law enforcement, first responders, and assisted living and home health care businesses.
“I am proud to see small businesses like this growing here in our community,” said State Representative Houston Gaines. “This is exactly the kind of outcome the legislature looked for and will continue to look for—attracting capital to our great state to ensure Georgia small businesses continue to expand.”
Banks and Mortgage Monopolies Dire Warning for Canadians
Is Canadian Real Estate in for a Big Price Drop? Even in the wake of the deadliest health epidemic of the last century, the Toronto housing market and Vancouver housing market did not crash. And if China had not released its deadly disease, the housing markets would have been roaring right now. It’s like science…