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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Technology Park management
buy-out bodes well for area
By
Rick O'Brien
President, Technology Park/Atlanta
Special to GwinnettForum.com
(Editor's Note: The following are remarks by
Technology Park/Atlanta President Rick O¹Brien, giving an
update on the status of the park, which now has four locations
in Atlanta, having been started in Norcross in the 1970s. Mr.
O'Brien recently led a management buy-out of the park from the
Peninsular and Orient Steamship Lines, the previous owners.)
APRIL 12, 2005 -- As most of you know, I have been working for
Technology Park/Atlanta for over 30 years in Peachtree Corners.
The project contains about 500 acres of land, incorporating 3,500,000
square feet of office and technology related space. It is the home
to 102 companies that employ over 7,000 people, generally in high
paying jobs.
O'Brien |
We began development in the early 70's and established high quality
standards. To encourage and enforce these standards, we placed comprehensive
deed restrictions and established an Owner¹s Association with
a fully operational Design Control Committee. Their role was to
review architectural building plans, site plans, signage, landscape
and tree preservation. At the time of our development, Gwinnett
County had no such ordinances controlling these activities. Several
areas, including Gwinnett, later adopted ordinances and overlay
districts modeled on our standards.
The primary land use in Technology Park is office space----a segment
of the market that has been slow for the past few years. However,
we have seen a significant recovery during the past few months.
We have recently leased over 200,000 square feet, bringing the
occupancy rate on multi-tenant, non-owner occupied space from 65
per cent to almost 80 percent. Five of the larger deals include
General Electric, who added 60,000 square feet in Building 20; Leica
Geosystems took 85,000 square feet in the old Melita building; and
HAAS Publishing/Primedia took 80,000 square feet in Building 3585;
Fuji Films leased 15,000 square feet in Building 157; and Beazer
Homes, which is headquartered in Technology Park, had a significant
expansion. We are optimistic that the office market will continue
to improve.
Soon we will introduce the first residential component to Technology
Park. A new 100 unit high-quality town house development will rise
on 13 acres behind the Marriott on Technology Parkway and Westech
Drive. McCar/MDC Homes will be the builder. Among the features:
… Gated for vehicular access;
… Two-car garages with carriage style doors;
… Mandatory Homeowners Association;
… Each unit will be 2,000-3,000 square feet, and primarily
brick with accents of shake and stone;
… Priced in the high $200's to the low $300's.
In 2004, Technology Park added over a mile of new sidewalks. We
have begun to construct an additional segment this year, and are
in the design stage to connect the new town houses to Peachtree
Parkway.
We are pleased to be part of the beautification project of the Paul
Duke Parkway portion of Peachtree Parkway. We are upgrading significant
new landscape materials in the Peachtree Parkway median between
Engineering and Spalding Drives to add seasonal color.
As a company, we only own a few of the remaining sites in Technology
Park (40 acres); however, we still manage the majority of the investor
owned buildings in the Park. We have an office condo development
in the works on a site at the intersection of Spalding Drive and
Engineering Drive; a small retail development on Peachtree Parkway;
and, possibly a restaurant and some professional offices along Spalding
Drive.
We have been in this market for a long time, and we intend to continue
to remain active. The recent management buy-out of Technology Park/
Atlanta demonstrates our long-term commitment to Technology Park
and maintaining its quality, and our commitment to the counties
in which we are located
ELLIOTT
BRACK
New
bocce ball courts open at Ronald Reagan Park on Friday
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
APRIL 12, 2005 -- Some 37 seniors in Gwinnett will be inaugurating
a new court---not a court of law, but a bocce ball court---at 10
a. m. on Friday at Ronald Reagan Park off Five Forks-Trickum Road.
The bocce ball tournament is the first event of the 2005 Gwinnett
Senior Olympics. Other events some 20 different events in various
age groups---will take place over the next month. There's everything
from walking to darts, golf to bowling, shuffleboard to fishing.
Last year some 256 individuals participated in the Senior Olympics
in Gwinnett. This year, 266 will be participating. That many or
more are expected this year. Activities end at a closing ceremony
on May 12.
Al Sandham is chairman of the Gwinnett Golden Olympics board; Bob
Giselbach and his wife, Eileen, are vice chair and secretary-treasurer;
while Susan Dodson is historian; and Dana Dow and Iris Sandham serve
as at large members of the board.
Last Friday we caught a glimpse of what the bocce ball tournament
might be like. Bob invited me out to the new bocce site. There are
two "courts" on the north side of Ronald Reagan Park.
The courts are really recently-completed adjacent pits, with grass
surface and measure about 68 feet long, 13 feet wide.
While at the courts on Friday, I witnessed what may have been the
first ever bocce contest in Gwinnett. Also along were Eileen Giselbach,
Pam Hoffman, with the Gwinnett Parks and Recreation, who is putting
on the Senior Olympics, and Joan Lynch, a Parks Department volunteer.
Let's be honest: I was invited since Bob had heard that on one
or two occasions, I had played bocce ball. But it was under far
difference circumstances, and on an open field, not on a regulation,
expertly-built bocce court. The official game as played in the bocce
pit is a far different game some call lawn bowling than in the free-style
of an open grassed field.
Bocce is gaining popularity, since it can be played by people of
all ages and on a great variety of surfaces
So here was this crew of four picking up a bocce ball for the first
time. "Oh, they are heavy,"one said. Another wondered:
"What do you do with this small ball?" It's called a "Jack,"
or "Pallino" and is used to start the game.
You toss it most of the way down the court. The game's object is
for those tossing the larger balls to place them as near the "Jack"
as possible. Of course, on subsequent throws, people can knock balls
away from the Jack, or even move the Jack itself.
Soon Eileen and Joan were playing against one another. On one set,
Joan¹s tosses were far away from the Jack. On Eileen's final
throw, she placed her last ball so near the Jack, that she was going
to get four points, the max allowed, in a round. But Joan had one
more throw.
And throw she did, hitting the Jack, moving it away from of Eileen's
balls, and giving Joan one point. It was a five point turn-around,
since it looked like Eileen was to get four points before Joan's
final toss.
Both were agreeing: this game can be fun.
On Friday, others will get to participate in this sport that has
been a popular diversion in Europe for ages. Now Americans, and
Gwinnettians, can benefit from its simplicity, and it complexity,
and its fun.
To learn more about the game, including the rules for the game,
go to:
http://www.centralconnector.com/GAMES/bocce.html.
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FEEDBACK
4/12: Waste of taxpayer money with fake reporters,
infomercials
Editor, the Forum:
You are absolutely right that the American people deserve better.
Fake reporters at White House briefings are as dumb as we get. And
government agencies trying to influence citizens through infomercials
has been going on for years. It's a waste of taxpayer money and
ought to be stopped.
However, we also would be much better served if we were able to
debate these issues without resorting to the inflammatory rhetoric
found in the words Nazi, propaganda, book-burning and demonizing
the Jews. I suspect today's column would have been just as effective
without that paragraph. It's disappointing to think we have lost
the ability to debate issues simply on their merits.
-- Patrick Malone, Snellville
4/12: Don't limit
your viewpoints on Pope John Paul's teachings
Editor, the Forum:
Pope John Paul II had a consistent ethic that sought to protect
and defend human life and dignity.
Many conservatives point to his teachings on abortion, euthanasia,
and sexual morality. But they forget his strong and passionate opposition
to the war in Iraq, capital punishment, and the operations of a
global economy that neglect the poor.
-- Ralph Greene, Snellville
CALENDAR
Gwinnett groups participate in Kick Butts
Day April 13
On April 13, teens across the nation will celebrate Kick Butts
Day, a nationwide initiative of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
that makes kids leaders in the effort to stop tobacco use. In celebration
of Kick Butts Day, the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line, a toll-free resource
that offers free counseling, screening, support and referrals to
local cessation services, has announced that its services are now
available to youth.
Trained "youth coaches"are available to assist youth
callers aged 13-17 in creating a personalized quit plan. Follow-up
counseling sessions can be scheduled to help youth callers reach
their goal to quit.
Locally, Smoke-Free Gwinnett and GUIDE, a community-based substance
abuse prevention agency in Gwinnett County, announce its collaboration
on a youth tobacco use prevention campaign targeting Gwinnett middle
and high school aged youth. Local members of current youth action
teams will be recruited to help develop the theme and visuals for
a peer-focused campaign.
For more information about Kick Butts Day go to www.kickbuttsday.org
or for assistance with tobacco cessation call 1-877-270-STOP or
1-877-2NO-FUME for Spanish speakers. For more information on Smoke-Free
Gwinnett, visit www.smokefreegwinnett.com.
Author on Atlanta Crackers book coming to library
Meet Tim Darnell, author of The Crackers: Early Days of Atlanta
Baseball, on Saturday, April 23, 2 p.m. at the Five Forks Branch
of the Gwinnett Library.
Darnell will talk about his book and answer audience questions.
He will also have copies of the book available for purchase and
signing.
The book includes interviews with many Cracker greats, such as
Chuck Tanner, Bob Montag, Ralph "Country" Brown, Tim McCarver
and Lloyd Gearhart; and relatives and friends of the late Earl Mann,
the team's legendary owner and general manager. It also includes
information on the Atlanta Black Crackers, the white team's counterpart
in the Negro Southern League.
RECOMMENDED
READ
- An invitation: What Web sites or books have you enjoyed?
Send us your best recent read along with a short paragraph as
to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TIDBIT
4/12: Howell Cobb was
powerful politician before Civil War
A mid-19th-century politician, Howell Cobb (1815-1868) served as
congressman (1843-51; 1855-57), speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
(1849-51), governor of Georgia (1851-53), and secretary of the treasury
(1857-60). Following Georgia's secession from the Union in 1861,
he served as president of the Confederate Provisional Congress (1861-62)
and a major general of the Confederate army.
 Cobb
was born in Jefferson County on September 7, 1815. Around 1819 the
family moved to Athens, where Cobb attended the University of Georgia,
graduating in 1834. He became an attorney in 1836. His marriage
in 1835 to Mary Ann Lamar produced twelve children, six of whom
survived to adulthood.
Although the practice of law provided Cobb with a profession, politics
was his avocation. Cobb's affability and quick mastery of House
rules hastened his advancement within the Democratic caucus. Already,
sectional disputes touching on slavery and its future tainted congressional
debates. From both inclination and political necessity, the young
congressman labored to protect southern interests in these struggles.
Following secession, Cobb served as president of the Confederate
Provisional Congress. He received some consideration for the Confederate
presidency, but lingering animosities among southern-rights men
effectively denied him the post. At the conclusion of his term he
entered the Confederate army. He began his service as colonel of
the Sixteenth Georgia Infantry and eventually rose to the rank of
major general
Cobb declined to make any public remarks on Reconstruction policy
pending receipt of a presidential pardon. That pardon came three
years after the war's end. He promptly delivered a series of speeches
in the summer of 1868, bitterly denouncing Radical Republican plans
for Reconstruction. He died of a heart attack while vacationing
in New York on October 9, 1868.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
It was a job waiting
for someone to do
"I became prime minister because that was how it was, in the
same way that my milkman became an officer in command of a machine-gun
squad in the '73 war. He didn't want the job but somebody had to
do it."
-- Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
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