By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post

ATLANTA – General Motors Corp. has announced plans to close a big minivan plant in Atlanta in the next two years, a decision that will cost 3,100 plant workers their jobs. But Vernon Jones, the chief executive of DeKalb County, still sees prosperity in the region’s future.

Jones has his sights on the property for creation of “a whole new city” – a mega-development with stores, offices, lofts and townhouses, and possibly even a performing arts center or a new soccer stadium. “It has the potential to triple the number of jobs that are being lost,” he said.

Few American cities can absorb the loss of an auto plant, or two, quite like Atlanta. In addition to the GM site, Atlanta is losing a Ford Motor Co. car assembly plant that has 1,800 workers. The closings are part of the latest wave of downsizing in the American auto industry. GM and Ford are closing all or part of 26 plants over the next three years and cutting as many as 60,000 workers.

For the out-of-work, Atlanta provides prospects far outstripping those of the areas of the Midwest shattered by the auto industry’s downturn. The Atlanta metro area’s unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, compared with 7.6 percent in greater Detroit. The city is bolstered by its vibrant services sector, which has the potential to sweep in workers cast off by the decline in manufacturing. In its economic clout, Atlanta stands as a symbol of the transformation overtaking the American economy and illustrates the hope of thousands of blue-collar workers trying to adjust to a new landscape.

Still, even here, the transition from factory work is a precarious one. Workers are deeply anxious about leaving behind the factory world they know. With their plant skills, they are aware they might wind up as outcasts in the new services economy. And those who do succeed in making the shift face the hurdle of rebuilding their lives on salaries far below the $20 to $26 an hour they were earning on the assembly line.

Frances Elmore, one of the first women hired at the Ford plant back in the late 1970s, said she plans to take a $35,000 buyout package, retire and go to work part time in her daughter’s law firm. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Elmore said.

Her co-worker, Willie McDonald, expects to take an even larger cash buyout, and the former Marine already has his sights on a new job with the Veterans Affairs Department after the plant closes this year. “I’m one of the fortunate few. I’ve never been without a job in my life,” he said.

To reach UAW Local 10, which represents the GM minivan plant, you can take Buford Highway north. Along the way, there are sprawling apartment communities, rows of shopping centers and plazas, retail superstores such as Burlington Coat Factory. Scattered in the mix are the occasional mercado and taqueria.

The Local 10 union hall is tucked off the highway, with its “Buy America” signs barely visible from the road. In the union hall, Debbie Goddard is counting down her years with General Motors – by the hour.

She has more than 29 years and estimates that she has 300 hours to go before the 30-year retirement threshold. Goddard is worried about GM’s recent troubles. “It could crash every dream I had for 30 years,” she said. “I was looking forward to a long, healthy retirement with benefits.”

Goddard and her friend Kathy Fowler aren’t sure yet what they are going to do. But both women say they know one place they’ll never end up – working on the line inside the new Kia plant. In March, Georgia cut a deal with the Kia Motors Corp. to construct a new assembly plant near the Alabama state line, luring the South Korean automaker with subsidies totaling $160,000 per job.

While Fowler and Goddard lament, Jones says DeKalb County is moving forward. He and other Atlanta leaders say keeping the plant open had been a challenge for years. In the end, they said they had to conclude that no financial incentive package could save the 58-year-old plant from the forces of globalization.

Now Jones is eyeing the 166-acre plot where the Doraville plant sits. He calls it prime property. It is within Atlanta’s Interstate 285 beltway and has two commuter rail stops. Jones is ready to draw up a master plan for the area, but a GM spokesman said the company hasn’t decided what to do with the property.

Jones envisions a redevelopment district with commercial, residential, retail and entertainment components. Atlanta has a thriving and ambitious development community, and Jones sees a precedent in what emerged in midtown Atlanta from the environmentally contaminated grounds of a former steel mill that had been operating since the early 1900s. It’s called Atlantic Station.

The mill had been cutting back in Atlanta for years as it moved operations to more efficient sites. The city created a master plan and waived taxes. A new bridge was built to connect the development to the highway and a 35-acre underground parking structure, topped by 1.2 million square feet of retail space, including an Ikea and a grocery store. Atlantic Station has 303 loft apartments, townhouses, a 101-room hotel, 14 restaurants and a 16-screen cinema. There is a 500,000-square-foot office building, with holes in the ground behind it for the construction of new towers.

By DAVID PENDERED , TY TAGAMI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/11/06

The setting for the first jewel proposed in Atlanta’s planned Beltline, nicknamed the emerald necklace, is a rock quarry in the city’s gritty industrial district a few miles west of Midtown.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin stood near the edge of the gapping gravel mine Tuesday and said Atlanta intends to buy the 100-year-old Bellwood Quarry and turn it into a beautiful park with a lake.

“We can only imagine what this part of the city looked like 100 years ago,” Franklin said. “Now we have a different vision of water, green space and waterfalls.”

The location of the first big park proposed along the Beltline in a historically blighted community sends a clear message that Atlanta leaders intend for the Beltline to benefit all of its neighborhoods, and not just the wealthy ones, said Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall. A key concern raised by some neighborhood leaders during the Beltline campaign last autumn was that affluent northeast Atlanta would receive the first of the Beltline goodies.

“We’ve hit the bull’s-eye,” Hall said. “This shows what kind of spirit is running through the leadership of the city. … Northwest Atlanta was a less desirable neighborhood for so many years in so many eyes. Locating it here means something.”

The purchase price is expected to be about $36 million, said Greg Giornelli, the president of the Atlanta Development Authority, who oversaw the formation of the Beltline’s planned network of trails, parks, transit and new development. Atlanta expects to pay Vulcan Materials Co. about $25 million to buy its lease to operate the quarry. The city would pay a fair market price for the land, estimated at $11 million, to Fulton County, which owns the 137.5-acre site.

The two City Council members whose districts would be most affected by the transaction said it would be a boon for the city. “Getting the quarry offline is certainly a positive step,” said Councilwoman Felicia Moore, whose district contains Bellwood.

Ivory Young, whose district abuts it, said the elimination of the quarry has been long desired by area residents. He said he expected the council’s Finance Committee, which meets this afternoon at Atlanta City Hall, to recommend the expenditure. “I think everybody’s excited,” he said.

No one has an idea of what the park would look like or how much it might cost. Atlanta has at least two years to figure it out. The quarry has two years to wind down operations, under terms of a potential deal.

The deal could close as early as February, said Ray Weeks, a developer tapped by Franklin to head her Beltline Partnership, a team of business and community leaders who’ve advocated for the Beltline. Weeks was intimately involved in the negotiations with Vulcan. But there still are several hurdles to clear.

First, the council has to agree to buy the lease and land. Discussions begin in earnest today, at the meeting of the Finance Committee. A proposal before the council calls for the city to use a mix of funds: proceeds from bonds approved last year for parks projects and future bonds backed by the special tax district created to pay for the $2 billion in Beltline projects.

If Atlanta makes an offer, Fulton County’s Board of Commissioners would consider the proposal. The commission endorsed the Beltline in December, voting to contribute its share of property taxes collected in the district to fund the Beltline.

Vulcan could be expected to accept the offer.

Community leaders were surprised to hear the news because they’d heard talk of the quarry acquisition but thought it wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

“Wonderful, that’s incredible,” Comer Hobbs Jr., president of the Howell Station Neighborhood Association, said when told of the mayor’s announcement.

He represents a collection of 300 older homes about a block to the east of the quarry, and said the blasting and heavy truck traffic were an ongoing nuisance — even a health threat because of particulates released into the air.

“Our curbs are never clean, there’s always a triangle of dust on every one of them,” he said. “This could be a dream come true.”

Mike Koblentz, chairman of the Northwest Community Alliance, which represents 18 neighborhoods, said the conversion would be “a tremendous plus for the northwest, there’s no question.”

He predicted a rush of development would result, since land values are far below those in nearby Midtown to the east.

Developer Chip Drury said he too thinks developers will flock to the area. He is a partner in the massive redevelopment of the property that once held one of the city’s worst housing projects. Perry Homes was razed to make way for the West Highlands development, which is just west of the quarry. It is a mix of commercial and residential development that Drury said will ultimately contain 2,000 to 3,000 housing units.

And there’s plenty of land for more people in what he described as a “massively underdeveloped” part of Atlanta. “This is a watershed event in the history of the city,” Drury said. “The city can only grow west because that’s where the land is.”

By H.M. CAULEY
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/29/05

For years, Jenny Pemberton has headed to Chamblee to shop at the city’s famous antiques shops.

But in the next few months, she’ll be calling the city home as well as a favorite shopping destination.

The graphic designer is one of the first buyers planning to move into the Lofts at 5300, a mixed-use complex of retail and residential in the downtown district.

“I like the style of a mixed-use area,” she said. “I’ve seen it in several other areas, like the new Midtown and Virginia-Highland areas, and I thought it would be great to be able to walk to shops and MARTA. Potentially, more businesses will come in because it’s such a cool place.”

One of the first mixed-use projects to lure buyers back to Chamblee was Heritage Lofts, a project that opened in 2002 close to City Hall. It’s now joined by the Lofts at 5300 across the street from the MARTA station.

“MARTA is a huge draw,” said Diana Rowe, vice president of Charter Real Estate Services, which is developing the Lofts.

Being so close to public transportation was a key factor for Pemberton, who works in Buckhead.

But so was getting the latest housing features that buyers want.

“I got a one-bedroom unit with a study and two full baths with almost 1,000 square feet,” said Pemberton of her first home. “And it has 10-foot ceilings, granite counters, cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances and a stackable washer/dryer.”

The Lofts feature two- and three-bedroom condos with 700 to 1,400 square feet. The complex comes with a heated pool, concierge, covered parking, club room, fitness center, rooftop deck, tennis court and three interior courtyards with water features and wireless Internet connections. Prices start in the low $100,000s and climb into the mid $200,000s.

With move-ins not expected to happen for a few months yet, the property already has 30 percent of its 242 units under contract.

“It just shows,” said Rowe, “that the live-work-play concept so close to public transportation is what people want.”

By BRENDEN SAGER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/25/05

Karen Martin seems like an unlikely homeowner. Even she admits that.

The school bus driver grew up in Marietta public housing projects and raised three children there. When the projects were torn down in 2001, she moved into a rent-subsidized apartment.

“I thought owning my own home was out of the question,” she said.

But Martin, 46, is the Marietta Housing Authority’s first homeowner. She has moved into her own two-bedroom, one-bathroom condominium on a corner lot in the Pleasant Note subdivision.

“People look at me now, they think I’m rich,” she said proudly.

Martin is taking advantage of a little-known federal housing program in which her rent subsidy goes toward house payments rather than to a landlord.

Against the backdrop of the nation’s ragged public housing projects, the goal of the program is to support homeownership and build family wealth, explained Marietta Housing Authority Executive Director Ray Buday. If the program is successful, residents such as Martin can build equity, sell their homes and buy another house, but without a government loan.

“I’m always glad to see people moving out of public and assisted housing,” Buday said. “I hope she will be the first of many.”

The Marietta Housing Authority has been in business since 1938 and is Cobb County’s largest public housing agency. Officials hope to have as many as 10 homeowners per year under the new program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Public housing agencies across the country offer similar programs. The Atlanta Housing Authority, for example, has about 40 homeowners, said Karin Moore, who administers the program for the Marietta Housing Authority.

Moore picked Martin for the new MHA program because she had a steady job at Marietta City Schools and had regularly paid her bills.

Martin said she was shocked to be the authority’s first-round draft choice.

“The anxious part was that I was saying to myself, ‘Can you really do this?’ They were asking me to do something that hadn’t ever been done before,” Martin said. “How do you do that?”

For the most part, her house note is like many others. She first had to budget and then prove she had good credit to qualify for a loan. She spent months looking for a house and had one deal fall through. Then she found an $85,000 condo just west of Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

She received a $25,000 loan toward her down payment through Cobb Housing Inc., a local nonprofit group that promotes homeownership. The public housing money that used to go to her landlord now goes toward repaying the down payment. Martin pays her remaining $60,000 mortgage through Wachovia Bank.

Marietta Housing Authority officials helped Martin understand the process. She was required to take classes on budgeting and credit.

The MHA also provides inspectors to check properties before purchase. Martin’s first deal fell through because the home she wanted to buy didn’t pass the MHA inspection.

Moore said the process can take between six and 18 months to qualify for a loan. The residents must work at least one year before entering the program and have a minimum annual income of $14,000.

“We’re really here to make sure they have a very good chance of being able to get the loan,” Moore said.

Martin, whose children are grown and lives alone, said the process was overwhelming. Going into debt to purchase a home seemed risky, she said, but she tries not to think about how much money she owes the bank. “I don’t look at the big number. I just look at next month’s payment.”

If the home appreciates in value, Martin is free to sell, provided she pays off all her existing obligations.

The Housing Authority operates 572 housing units, down from a peak of 1,500. Through its 67-year history, officials estimate, about 100,000 residents have passed through its doors.

Martin said that being the first homeowner from MHA has boosted her self-image and her social standing among friends and family. “They think I got money now,” she said. “It all goes back to budgeting. Knowing how to budget — I’m an expert at that.”

By Elaine Reyes
WXIA

ATLANTA, GA — Two disaster relief shelters in Metro Atlanta are helping assist the steady flow of hurricane-weary evacuees from the Gulf Coast seeking food, rest and peace of mind.

One of the two American Red Cross shelters – located at the Adamsville Recreation Center on Martin Luther King Drive, near Interstate 285 -opened its doors at 7 p.m. Tuesday to the thousands of men, women and children who fled the deadly floodwaters and twisters spawned by Katrina, which first slammed onto the Louisiana shoreline last Monday as a Category 5 hurricane.

By Tuesday, nearly 100 people were feared dead in Louisiana after the levees restraining a rain-swelled Lake Pontchartrain burst, plunging the Crescent City under monstrous floodwaters. A day earlier, Gov. Kathleen Blanco told everyone in the city, including those huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers, to evacuate immediately.

Louisiana residents who’d already heeded the warning of the approaching storm, which rivaled the devastating Camille, traveled east toward Atlanta, escaping havoc also wrought by Katrina in Mississippi and Alabama. Many of them told 11Alive they fled their homes with next to nothing.

Zealise Lacour said, “I only brought two outfits with me. That’s all I brought, because I wasn’t prepared to leave.”

Some have taken refuge in shelters set up the by the Red Cross, while others are staying in area motels, possibly because the handful of shelters are rapidly reaching capacity.

Among those driven from their homes are Mary Thornton and about 30 members of her family who are living out of three rooms at a Motel 6 in College Park, Ga. She says they’re running out of food, daily necessities and have even resorted to begging for money.

“We had to get out on the road today and ask for donations so that we could stay here another night,” Thornton said.

“We held up signs on the corner and when the car stopped, we walked up to them, asked if they wanted to give a donation so that we can get back for food and gas,” said James Johnson

The motel is full of people in the same situation.

“We just got each other, it’s all we got,” Angeles Dominguez, also an evacuee from New Orleans, said. “It’s very stressful. You’ve seen the city and it’s full of water. We don’t know how long we’re going to last out here.”

“Is there anything left to go home to?” Thornton said. “We have not heard from a family member. We don’t know if they are living or dead.”

Still, they said that above all else they are glad to be alive and well. However, with their money running out and homes in New Orleans likely a total loss, it’s unknown how long the Thorntons can last in Atlanta or whether they’ll have any home left to return to.

Local disaster-relief agencies – including the metro chapters of The American Red Cross and The United Way – are turning to the Atlanta community for help in donations of food, clothing and money. Anyone interested in giving to The United Way can call 2-1-1 from anywhere in Metro Atlanta.

To get more details on the Red Cross shelters, call (404) 870-4440.

Business interests seek improved interchange at Williams Street

By Ryan Mahoney
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET July 17, 2005

The business leaders who are spending big to bring new office towers, condominiums and tourist attractions to downtown plan to ask taxpayers for a few million dollars more to give the workers, residents and visitors who will use them a more direct route in and out.

Barry Real Estate Cos. wants to offer potential tenants at its $330 million Allen Plaza mixed-use complex now under construction an easy way to hop on the Downtown Connector (interstates 75 and 85) and head home to the suburbs at the end of the workday.

Novare Group Inc. wants to give residents at its planned Twelve Centennial Park condos similar access to points north. And Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), wants tourists to have a straight shot from the Downtown Connector to his new $200 million Georgia Aquarium, which opens Nov. 23.

Backed by Central Atlanta Progress and its Atlanta Downtown Improvement District public-private partnership, they are proposing substantial modifications to the Williams Street interchange that would satisfy all those objectives by adding a flyover from Spring Street at Allen Plaza to the connector northbound and an exit ramp to Spring Street and the tourist destinations it feeds from the connector southbound, bypassing Williams Street entirely.

The road improvements could become the biggest project on the connector since the construction of the 17th Street bridge from Midtown to the Atlantic Station development.

“It’s a way to take people from Williams and drop them down to Spring, which goes to Centennial Olympic Park Drive, where a lot of things are happening, like tradeshows, the Georgia Dome, the aquarium,” said Paul Kelman, CAP’s executive vice president. “We can alleviate some of the through traffic from Williams and make it more pedestrian-friendly.”

“It gives us two ways to go north,” said Barry President Chris Schoen (the other route being Williams Street itself). “People in the office building and hotel can pull out of the bottom of the deck, turn left on Spring and take an immediate left on the new ramp. It’s a win-win for downtown and Midtown.”

Allen Plaza tenants that would benefit from the flyover — as well as the creation of Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard as a single east-west corridor from three different one-way streets, a project already under way — include Southern Co. (NYSE: SO), accounting giant Ernst & Young LLP and law firm Balch & Bingham LLP.

Besides earnest support from Marcus and Novare CEO Jim Borders, the proposal also is attracting interest from the Georgia World Congress Center, the new World of Coke and other downtown attractions and businesses, Schoen said.

The changes would “not only have a positive impact on the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, but the entire downtown community,” said Mike Sullivan, the hotel’s marketing director.

The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District voted July 8 to support the proposal. The plan recently was presented to the Georgia Department of Transportation, which is in favor of the idea.

“Everyone here was impressed with it,” said GDOT spokesman David Spear. “The interchange is a mess right now, and this would straighten it out. Our urban design guys essentially think it’s an excellent idea.”

William Mecke, spokesman for the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, said his agency likewise supports the changes because of their congestion-relieving potential.

But even with strong support from the business community and the state, the project still would have to compete with many others for the approval of the Atlanta Regional Commission before it could be funded. ARC Planning Director Tom Weyandt said it was not currently in the commission’s long-term plans.

Kelman conservatively estimated the project’s cost at $6 million. However, that figure was calculated for an earlier and ostensibly less expensive version of the plan that Schoen said did not meet all of GDOT’s requirements. That version called for a short on-ramp from Spring to an existing loop that would let commuters go north or south on the connector instead of a northbound-only flyover.

The project’s proponents expect to put up about $50,000 for a study to refine the plan and resolve engineering challenges like bringing the exit ramp from the connector down to meet Spring Street — which could necessitate cutting a hole in the roof of the tunnel through which Spring Street runs at that point. Private dollars also might be used to supplement scarce federal funds or to otherwise expedite the project.

© 2005 Atlanta Business Chronicle
© 2005 MSNBC.com

As a Belt Line investor, developer Wayne Mason isn’t razing his roofs, he’s moving Atlanta forward

Published on: 06/03/05

As metro Atlanta’s population grows, so too will the need for a more diverse mix of housing options for those who don’t want — or no longer need — a single-family home in the suburbs with a back yard of fescue to cut. That’s why prominent Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason, who has long been known for suburban subdivisions, is putting his money on the Belt Line, an intown transit project that marks a dramatic departure from his business as usual.

As envisioned, the Belt Line would create a 22-mile transit loop serving 45 neighborhoods with light-rail cars running on unused or little-used railroad tracks. The line would intersect with MARTA and be festooned with an “emerald necklace” of parks, bike paths and walking trails.

Mason has plunked down $25 million for a five-mile-long corridor along the proposed Belt Line route from Decatur Street downtown, past Piedmont Park and northward to I-85. Along with his development partners, the NorthEast Atlanta Beltline Group, Mason says he is committed to the principles of the “new urbanism.”

They’ve pledged that their developments will include high-rise apartments and condos to be populated by young professionals accustomed to urban living and suburban empty-nesters who’ve grown weary of driving everywhere. In addition, Mason and his group have vowed to abide by affordability guidelines that will preserve a percentage of newly built units for households earning less than the area median income.

On Thursday, lawyers for the group filed for zoning changes that must be approved by the Atlanta City Council. Bear in mind, however, that the Belt Line could take years, even decades, to complete. But even if that never happens — a distinct possibility — Mason’s investment makes good business sense.

Mason isn’t inventing a trend or trying his hand at social engineering by telling his customers how or where they should live. The suburbs he helped build aren’t going away.

Instead, by reacting to the dynamic changes in the region’s maturing housing market, Mason has had an epiphany: The one-size-fits-all development patterns degrading the region’s environment and diminishing our quality of life are no longer sustainable.

“The time has come, and we are voting with our money, ” Mason said this week. “A lot of Sun Belt cities have proven they can grow out. This project will prove if Atlanta can grow up.”

April 24, 2005

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA — Atlanta is getting ready to host a month of music and culture at its annual jazz festival, May 1 to 31.

The event includes a nightlife series of performances at bars and nightclubs throughout the metro Atlanta area, including Churchill Grounds, Bar Joel, Apache Cafe and Justin’s, as well as a Jazzy Singles mingling event at the Jazz Loft.

Other special events and concerts will be staged at venues including the High Museum of Art, Centennial Olympic Park, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, the Atrium at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and the Hudgens Center for the Arts.

Several restaurants will host dinners with live jazz, including Vinocity, C’est Bon, Toast Restaurant, Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe, Basil’s, City Grill and others.

The festival culminates with three days of events over Memorial Day weekend at Piedmont Park, including workshops, an art market, food vendors and a main stage with live performances.

By DAVID PENDERED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/28/05

Atlantic Station is taking shape as a mini-city as workers complete the shells of buildings for shops and residences in the focal point of the new neighborhood in Midtown.

This area is called the District, and when viewed from the Downtown Connector, it still looks like a project in early stages. Construction cranes dominate the skyline to the west of the SouthTrust building, which is the high-rise office tower that this spring will be reflagged as the Wachovia building. Wachovia purchased SouthTrust last year.

But construction has occurred quickly.

The 21-story SouthTrust building was started two years ago this month, and its first occupants arrived in April 2004. The tower’s groundbreaking coincided with the start of the 17th Street bridge over the Downtown Connector. Work started on the retail component in June, and its grand opening is scheduled in October. The first residents moved into Atlantic Station in October 2003.

Progress of the District can best be seen from 17th Street. Insulation-clad exteriors have been raised for a Regal movie complex, a Dillard’s department store and a Publix grocery. The Novare Group has built several floors of a high-rise that will be both a hotel and condo. The buildings are to be connected by broad walkways topped with pavers.

Condos are being built above six buildings in the District. The Lane Co. is building 303 lofts that are to be ready for residents in about a year. Lane says potential buyers have signed a waiting list for the development called ATL Lofts. Prices are still being determined, but Lane is certain they will start in the $300,000s.

These residences are an important part of the live-work-play concept that underpins the government’s support for Atlantic Station. The federal and state governments supported the 17th Street bridge in part because Atlantic Station is expected help improve the region’s air quality by reducing the need for car trips to get around. Atlantic Station concentrates development instead of spreading it over a large area that invites shoppers to drive from one big box center to the next.

The condos are right in the middle of the lifestyle complex and a short distance from the SouthTrust tower and other planned office buildings.

This project will be Lane’s fourth residential project at Atlantic Station. Lane also built the element and Art Foundry condos, and the rental apartments called Park District. Beazer Homes built the townhouses that can be seen from the Downtown Connector on the southern fringe of Atlantic Station.

Tuesday October 26, 5:11 am ET
The Future of the Home and Building Industries Are in Their Wallets!

ATLANTA, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ — The 40 million consumers who make up Generation X are laying waste to the perception that they are not yet a viable market for the home building, design, decor, and remodeling industries to pursue.
A study by Kleber & Associates Marketing and Communications found Gen X, ages 25-34, will buy their homes and build new ones with a focus on individuality and personal style that will drive the trends in design and style, not follow them, for the next 20 years.

“This group is nomadic, pragmatic, active, and non-traditional. They value personal time and convenience and, they expect ready access to the things they want,” comments Steve Kleber, president of Kleber & Associates. “They represent a powerful buying force that cannot be overlooked.”

According to 2002 CEX data, Gen X accounts for 16.5 percent of the home furnishing market and 19.9 percent of furniture purchases. The recent study by Kleber & Associates confirmed that GenX makes buying decisions differently than the previous generation. Product attributes that motivate them to purchase are quality, longevity, value, and reliability.

When they shop, the study found Gen Xers often research purchases on the Web, and then shop in-store where they rely heavily on point-of-sale information to make their selection. GenXers are attracted to companies with toll-free telephone lines or a user-friendly website. Their decisions on major home improvements are driven by the positive impact on the value of their home and its resale potential. And, they want what’s new.

Looking at home buying, CEX data shows that 49 percent of people in the GenX group own homes. Another study puts the number even higher at 68 percent. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median age of first-time homebuyers is 31. This is nearly five years younger that it was in 1993. First-time homebuyers made up 40 percent of the overall home sales in 2003.

“They are an undeniable emerging power in the home buying, furnishings, and home improvement marketplace,” Kleber adds. “Clearly, the high expectations of the 25-34 demographic will be a catalyst for a range of new products, fresh design ideas, and a focus on convenience. Their preferences and purchasing patterns will drive home design and decor for the foreseeable future.”