Carter to receive CAP Award
Central Atlanta Progress will bestow its top awards to longtime civic players in downtown and the city at its Jan. 28 annual meeting.
Tom Bell will receive the Dan & Tally Sweat Award
Carter, a real estate firm, will receive the Marcus Downtown Economic Impact Award
Camille Russell Love will receive the Warner Bros. Discovery Community Leadership Award
CAP’s annual meeting, along with the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta during lunch. The awards program has been part of the CAP/ADID annual meeting for the past 20 years.
Tom Bell has made a big impact on Atlanta over the past two decades. He moved to Atlanta in 2002, when he immediately took a leadership role in the community. Bell served as chairman, CEO and president of the Cousins real estate firm.
Bell also served as a director of Norfolk Southern’s board for 14 years, and he was instrumental in the successful efforts to move the railroad company’s headquarters from Norfolk, Va., to Atlanta.
But Bell’s civic contributions culminated in his efforts to save Grady Hospital. Working with Pete Correll, then CEO of Georgia-Pacific, Bell led the creation of the Greater Grady Task Force in 2007. Bell and Correll led a broad-based community effort to transform the Grady Healthcare System from the brink of bankruptcy to becoming Atlanta’s crucial safety-net hospital.
Bell also served on the boards of CAP, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Woodruff Arts Center, the YMCA of Metro Atlanta, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, Emory University and Southern Company Gas.
“Tom Bell is that rare combination of dynamic business and impactful civic leader,” said A. J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress. “He focused a lot of his good work on downtown Atlanta with his acquisition of 191 Peachtree while at Cousins. He provided leadership to the health of our region when he partnered with others to create the Greater Grady Task Force, ultimately ensuring that Atlanta will always have a Level One Trauma Hospital. Tom has had his hand in many initiatives that have moved us forward.”
Atlanta-based Carter, a national real estate investment and development firm, has made a major impact on downtown Atlanta. In 2015, the firm was selected to redevelop the Summerhill Neighborhood, partnering with Georgia State University, to help the community respond to the move of the Atlanta Braves from Turner Field to Truist Park in Cobb County.
Since then, Carter has transformed the 83-acre site into a mixed-use environment with restaurants, retail, multifamily housing, for-sale townhomes, office space, banking and health offices. The project also brought a much-needed Publix grocery to the community, giving GSU students access to fresh food. In all, the current and planned investment in the community is more than $1 billion.
“Carter took acres of empty parking lots in a historic neighborhood in downtown that was twisting in the wind after the Braves left for Cobb County and transformed it into a bustling “small town” creating a village with restaurants, housing and small businesses,” Robinson said. “They’re also responsible for bringing a grocery store to this former food desert and sporting a Michelin Star recognized restaurant, Little Bear, to downtown Atlanta. Carter partnered with GSU to make a brand new neighborhood.”
The third honoree is Camille Russell Love, who started working for the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs in 1998. Love has served under five different mayoral administrations, and she has played a major role in developing the city’s Public Art Program, Gallery 72, Elevate, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and more.
Love’s impact on downtown can be seen in public art installations and the Elevate festival, which brings vibrancy to a host of intown neighborhoods. Her efforts helped Atlanta be named the no. 2 Emerging Art Capital to watch in 2024.
“The CAP nominating committee didn’t hesitate when selecting Camille Russell Love for the Warner Bros. Discovery Community Leadership Award,” Robinson said. “She epitomizes the heart of this award — someone who has enlivened every corner of Atlanta with murals, sculpture and music and with little recognition or knowledge from most Atlanta citizens.”
by Maria Saporta