Arthur Blank Family Foundation

ATLANTA, March 14, 2006 The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced it has joined Living Cities, an influential national coalition of 17 investment partners that focuses on urban neighborhoods — a move that could steer additional funding toward Atlanta’s Beltline, the proposed corridor of transit, parks and trails that would connect 46 neighborhoods.

Founded in 1991, Living Cities brings together national foundations, financial institutions and a federal agency in 23 cities to revitalize urban city neighborhoods. Through investments of more than $370 million in grants and loans it helps build homes, stores, schools, community and daycare and healthcare and job-training centers and helps residents get access to capital they need to help improve their neighborhoods.

Atlanta has been a city in which Living Cities (and its predecessor organization, the National Community Development Initiative) has invested nearly $10 million since 1991, using Enterprise Community Partners (formerly The Enterprise Foundation) as its local implementation partner/agent. To date, Living Cities investments in Atlanta have helped to produce more than 550 homes in 12 distinct projects across the city. Through a partnership with the Historic District Development Corporation, for example, Living Cities helped revitalize 15 blocks surrounding Martin Luther King’s birthplace and renovate more than 100 single-family homes and a 58-unit low-income apartment complex in the Historic District.

Having the locally based Blank Foundation as a member could help bring additional visibility to high-profile projects like the Beltline

“Collaborating with Living Cities gives us more financial leverage than we could possibly achieve alone," said Blank Foundation President Penelope McPhee. “Through this partnership we have a real opportunity to bring more investment dollars and expertise to quality of life issues that are critical to Atlanta’s future."

"The expertise that the Blank Foundation brings to the Living Cities collaborative will greatly benefit our work to strengthen urban neighborhoods and the toughest communities," said Douglas W. Nelson, co-chair of Living Cities and president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. "With their partnership, we will look at opportunities like the Atlanta Beltline to see how Living Cities can play a contributing role in its success."

Living Cities funders are: AXA Community Investment Program, Bank of America; The Annie E. Casey Foundation; J.P. Morgan Chase & Company; Deutsche Bank; Fannie Mae Foundation; Ford Foundation; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; The McKnight Foundation; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Prudential Financial; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Cleveland Foundation; The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.

About The Blank Foundation’s Other Beltline Investments

The Beltline concept, conceived by Georgia Tech graduate student Ryan Gravel in 1999, would redefine Atlanta’s in-town landscape by turning more than 20 miles of old, mostly unused railroad tracks and other land into a linear recreation and transit loop that would connect diverse urban neighborhoods, as well as city schools, historic and cultural sites, shopping districts and public parks.

In 2004, The Blank Foundation awarded a $225,000 grant to The Trust for Public Land (TPL) that helped fund the development of a plan released in December 2004 and conducted by renowned Yale University Professor Alexander Garvin. Building on Gravel’s idea, TPL commissioned the Garvin team to explore open space opportunities along the Beltline. The resulting plan, “The Beltline Emerald Necklace: Atlanta’s New Public Realm," calls for the Beltline corridor to frame a new park system, adding more than 1,400 acres of green space to the city, including four new parks, and five park-centered mixed-use developments.

Last year, the foundation awarded a $2.5 million challenge grant to TPL to support its campaign for right-of-way and green space acquisition along the proposed Beltline corridor.

The Blank Foundation is making its Beltline-related grants as part of a broader strategy called Inspiring Spaces, aimed at developing a system of great parks in Atlanta through planning, land acquisition, maintenance and public support. To date, working with city and county officials, civic and neighborhood associations and environmental groups, the Foundation has helped preserve more than 800 acres of land within metro Atlanta.

About The Blank Family Foundation

Formed in 1995, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation is focused on enhancing education, preserving green space, sustaining the arts and sparking collaboration among its nonprofit partners, primarily in Atlanta.

Arthur M. Blank is owner & CEO of the Atlanta Falcons and Georgia Force. He co-founded The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, in 1978 and retired from the company as co-chairman in 2001. Through his generosity, the foundation, along with Blank and his wife’s personal giving, has granted more than $220 million to various charitable organizations.