Event details:
Cumberland Community Improvement District (CID) Executive Director Malaika Rivers, an LAI Atlanta Chapter member, will speak on the explosive growth in the Cumberland area.
It’s been almost four years since the Atlanta Braves announced the relocation of the team’s home to Cobb County. When the announcement was made, there were expectations that the team’s stadium and surrounding development would have a significant economic impact in the north metro Atlanta Region. Some observers, however, predicted the Braves’ development would reduce other investments given concerns about traffic.
Since then the fears of nightmarish traffic has largely dissipated and Cumberland is experiencing a renaissance in growth. With a bustling pipeline of 9.5 million square feet of commercial and residential properties under construction, the CID will realize $5 billion of public and private investments by 2018.
Come find out how the state’s oldest community improvement district, the Cumberland CID, helped shape growth in the community over the past three decades and how that foresight has helped make possible the exciting changes taking place today.
Cost: $30.00, registration opens August 1.
Malaika Rivers Bio:
Malaika Rivers is responsible for leading the efforts of the Cumberland Community Improvement District (CID), located in the Cumberland submarket in northwest Atlanta, Georgia. The Cumberland CID is the mechanism by which the area’s commercial property owners ‐ the private sector ‐ invest in public infrastructure to protect and increase their property values as well as better the entire community.
With 24 years’ experience, Rivers works with commercial investors, developers, government partners and other stakeholders by improving the transportation infrastructure and services. Seed funding by the business community is raised through annual assessments on commercial property owners in the district. This money is then leveraged against public funds and collectively reinvested back into the community. With two dozen capital projects valued at a quarter billion dollars, Rivers is delivering a 500% ROI on the CID’s current work program of roads, bridges, streetscapes, trails, beautification, parks, transit and other infrastructure projects.
Rivers began with the Cumberland CID in 1996. She has helped the business community leverage $140 million into an estimated $2.5 billion in capital improvements through this public‐private partnership. The CID’s success has contributed to an explosion in property values; $3.5 billion in real estate asset value added since the CID’s inception. Further testament to the CID’s impact is the $700 million increase in property values since the Atlanta Braves decision in 2013 to develop a next generation MLB stadium and mixed‐use development in Cumberland.
For the past three years Rivers has been named a “Notable Georgian” by Georgia Trend magazine (2015 – 2017), a “25 Power Women to Watch” by Atlanta Woman magazine, a “40 Under 40” by both Georgia Trend and the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and a “Woman of Achievement” by the YWCA. Rivers sits on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Council for Quality Growth, and the Livable Communities Council. She is active with the Urban Land Institute and a member of Lambda Alpha International. She sits on various regional committees and is a graduate of the Regional Leadership Institute as well as Leadership Cobb. Rivers has also served as an appointment by the Speaker of the House of the Georgia House of Representatives. Under Rivers’ leadership, the CID and its initiatives have been recognized and awarded nationally and internationally by the US EPA, US & Georgia DOTs, Institute of Transportation Engineers, International Downtown Association, Georgia Planning Association, Association for Commuter Transportation, as well as notable coverage by the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, ABC World News, and more.
Prior to her current position, Rivers was with the Atlanta Regional Commission and before that, with private industry in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia. Rivers is a graduate of Virginia Tech and lives in Atlanta,
Georgia with her two children.