April 2017 | Business View Magazine

78 79 about $42 million in tax credits.” At the same time, Griffin received a CHIP grant to start sin- gle-family home infill housing. “We are also going to be part of a multi-state, low-interest loan award under the Kresge Foun- dation Healthy Communities grant, with the Dept. of Community Affairs Home Funds, to complete the renovation of the remaining two public housing sites. By the end of 2018, all our public hous- ing sites will be converted, thanks to $62 million in tax credits. We’re really excited about that!” Bragging rights: Griffin’s Meriwether Phase One “The Oaks at Park Pointe”beat the city of Chicago to win the Charles Edison Award for innovative public housing development. The Livable Centers Initiative is helping Griffin beautify its downtown core. “At one point, it was kind of desolate,” Toussaint Griffin, Georgia Preferred vendor n Paragon Consulting Group www.pcgeng.com Did you know? Doc Holliday, Old West gun- slinger and friend of Wyatt Earp, was born in Griffin on August 14, 1851. Today, the city draws tourists to a museum dedicated to Holliday’s life. In recent years, Griffin has been featured in award-winning films including Driving Miss Dai- sy, Mississippi Burning, and The Hunger Games, as well as the AMC show The Walking Dead. Residents dubbed their home “The Iris City” because the Flint River Iris Society promotes, grows, and shows the stately flower for popular events in spring and summer. explains, “but now we have several lofts ful- ly occupied and a lot of eateries –people are walking downtown and there is a lot of activity. We’re looking at options to accommodate res- idents that want to move to the core. The LCI grant will help it thrive - it’s a $9 million invest- ment.” Eco-friendly, Business-friendly Griffin’s redevelopment projects follow Earth- Craft Communities guidelines for environmen- tally-friendly neighborhoods –walkability, parks, biking, etc. In addition, the city has the only mandatory, residential recycling compo- nent in Georgia. Residents are provided two containers: one for household waste, one for recyclables. If you don’t put out your recycle can, your garbage doesn’t get picked up. That’s a green initiative that works. Kenny Smith is passionate about the city he manages. “People need to know that we are striving to be business-friendly. As a gov- ernment, we’re trying to take bureaucratic stumbling blocks away from companies, and assist them to locate here and do business.We have tax allocation districts, enterprise zones, opportunity zones…which make us an attrac- tive location.We are particularly interested in entrepreneurs and small businesses.We have amended the alcohol ordinance to be more user friendly to craft breweries and small pro- ducers of alcohol products. Anything we can do to help, because Griffin values all businesses, no matter the size.” ZHIHUA (SAMUEL) LIANG, P.E. Project Engineer 118 North Expressway | Griffin, GA 30223 | tel 770.412.7700 email zliang@pcgeng.com | www.pcgeng.com Your Vision – Our Mission. THE ADVANTAGE TM 118 North Expressway | Griffin, GA 30223 | 770.412.7700 (p) | 770.412.7744 (f) Are you reAdy to work with A well-estAblished, multidisciplinAry firm thAt delivers: n Comprehensive engineering n Project management n Planning and land development consulting services n Access and responsiveness n Hands-on experience n Relationship building n Smart, innovative thinking If so, it’s time for you to call the Paragon Consulting team and experience The Paragon Advantage – the confidence, capability and intellectual resources that optimize design to get your project to solution as effectively as possible.