Month: December 2019

Aerial view of SunTrust park

For Immediate Release

Cumberland CID Achieves $20 Billion Economic Impact on State of Georgia

(CUMBERLAND)- The Cumberland Community Improvement District (CID) and its Board of Directors released a new Cumberland CID Economic Impact Analysis today. The analysis showed tremendous growth within the CID revealing that an additional 14,450 primary jobs were added in the past decade, a 27% increase. This now brings the total number of primary jobs in the district to 68,840. The analysis also showed that the Cumberland CID is now home to nearly 29,000 residents representing 3.8% of Cobb County’s population.

“This study confirms that the Cumberland Market has a healthy, vibrant, and growing economy,” said Executive Director Kim Menefee. “By leveraging our investments and key partnerships the Cumberland CID has contributed an economic impact of $15.3 billion to Cobb County and $20 billion to the state. This success could not be possible without our investors, stakeholders, and local, state, and federal partners.”

“Today’s news is a validation that the Cumberland CID is delivering on the goals and investments it has put forward,” said John Shern, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Cumberland CID. “As the trend lines illustrate, we are experiencing new growth in all sectors. We will continue to be innovative and take a bold approach to the future.”

Key Economic Impact Analysis Findings:

The Cumberland CID Economic Impact Analysis was conducted by the Bleakly Advisory Group. Some of the key findings include:

• The Cumberland CID currently has an estimated 3,396 businesses with 68,840 employees. The 68,840 jobs represents 19% of Cobb County’s 396,000 jobs.

• The Cumberland CID is strong in the competitive and high-wage professional sectors, representing 33% of Cobb County’s jobs. These categories include the information, finance & insurance, real estate, professional scientific and technical services, and management of companies.

• The Cumberland CID has a direct impact of $9.2 billion and total impact of $15.3 billion on goods and services produced in Cobb County. Overall, the Cumberland CID has a total impact of $20 billion on the state.

• Retail is the top employment sector, representing over 15,000 jobs or 22% of the Cumberland CID’s primary jobs.

• The Cumberland CID’s population is growing at 2% annually, 1.6 times the rate of Cobb County and faster than the Atlanta region as a whole.

• 68% of the Cumberland CID’s residents are Millennials or Generation X.

• Since 2013, the CID has added over 7.8 million square feet of office, hotel, and multifamily space.

• The Cumberland CID has 4.6 million square feet of new commercial space in the real estate pipeline. Over the next 1-5 years, that construction and development will have a $2.6 billion economic impact to Cobb County.

• Properties within the Cumberland CID boundary paid an estimated $105 million in taxes in 2019 – approximately 13% of All Cobb County’s property tax revenue.

• Properties and economic activity within the Cumberland CID generate $70 million for Cobb County Schools from a combination of real estate taxes and E-SPLOST sales taxes.

About Cumberland CID

The Cumberland Community Improvement District (CID), Georgia’s first CID, is a public-private assessment district in northwest Atlanta. It is an organization through which local commercial property owners can advance necessary public infrastructure projects that enhance property values as well as the greater community. Originally formed in 1988 by business leaders interested in improving highway access for the emerging Cumberland submarket, the CID went a step further and created a master road plan for the area. The Cumberland CID now represents 190 commercial property owners (residential excluded) and facilitates additional road and transit infrastructure improvements, streetscapes and beautification projects, bicycle and walking trails, alternate commute programs and services as well as community planning.

About Bleakly Advisory Group

Founded in 2001, the Bleakly Advisory Group has focused on helping clients understand how market and economic forces impact their real estate development vision. The Bleakly Advisory Group is grounded in more than 25 years of experience in both consulting and implementation for hundreds of satisfied clients.

Biketober October 2019 at The Battery Atlanta

By Carolyn Baar – Georgia Commute Options

Eleven months of the year, Georgia Commute Options (GCO) focuses on reducing the number of single occupancy vehicles on the road in the Atlanta region. In October, we focus on biking. Zagster Bikes during Biketober

Georgia Commute Options’ sixth annual bike challenge, Biketober, exceeded all expectations. This year’s challenge saw the highest rates of participation in its history with 4,477 registrants, a 79% increase from last year’s 2,500. Of those registered, 2,811, including 500 new riders, logged trips during the month of October – compared to 1,900 in 2018.

Biketober, also known as The Atlanta Bike Challenge, is all about getting people on bikes and sharing in the fun of cycling. We heard stories from all over the region about people who experienced the benefits of incorporating cycling into their daily routine and plan to continue to ride. We strive to help bike advocates find their voices through this challenge and make biking safer and more fun for everyone by increasing the number of bikers on roads and trails in our area.

The Cumberland CID (CCID) and its members played a big role in the challenge’s success this year. The residents, commuters and visitors of CCID took advantage of all the new CID two-wheel amenities by riding the new trails and visiting the new bike share stations.

Georgia Commute Options hosted promotional activities across the district at locations including Randstad, The Galleria Atlanta, America’s Capital Partners and The Battery Atlanta. We distributed information directly to more than 5,000 commuters in the district and had personal conversations with more than 500 individuals. Fifteen companies in the district participated this year including Randstad, who awarded their participating employees wellness points.

A big draw for bikers to participate in Biketober was the chance to win one of the many prizes up for grabs. We gave away two Edison Electric Bicycles, a KHS Flite road bike from Aztec Cycles and weekly gifts including hats, T-shirts and restaurant gift certificates. In addition to promoting these prizes, our outreach activities allowed us to highlight a comprehensive list of “Where to Ride.”  We used this resource to position the Cumberland CID trails as a gateway to the Silver Comet Trail, the trails in the National Parks and the ever-increasing connectivity these trails offer. We helped map trips between transit service, residential and employment centers, restaurants, retail and recreational assets in Cumberland.

With the increasing amenities for cycling, including new Zagster stations and nearly 40 miles of trails, Cumberland is the perfect place to bike. Our neighbors in Downtown and Midtown have great bike trails and amenities too, but imagine if the Cumberland CID members took this event to a new level in 2020. What if members of the CID form teams to mount corporate challenges, sponsor bike-in-movies, participate in bike-to-work days or host a Zagster-to-Lunch event? Our team at GCO stands ready to partner with you to make next years’ event bigger and better. We challenge you to incorporate Biketober into your calendar next year. Let’s raise awareness of the CID’s beautiful, walkable, bikeable district by encouraging our community to get out and ride next October.

Check out all of the results of the challenge at the Atlanta Bike Challenge and get your gears turning for next Fall. Are you in?

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