CarterBlog

A Successful Finale to Carter’s College Football Pick’em Pool!

By Sarah Peddar, business development manager, Carter

ATLANTA (Dec. 2, 2011) - Congratulations to Carl Mullins of CBRE for winning Carter’s First Annual College Football Pick’em Pool! With 97 wins throughout the 13-week season, Mullins surpassed the other 60 players and scored a pair of tickets to the SEC Championship Game tomorrow at the Dome. He is a dedicated and loyal Dawgs fan, so we wish him the best of luck as his team takes on the Cajun Tigers.

If you didn’t participate in this year’s pool, you missed out. Hosted by the Interior Project Management Team, the season kicked off at Five Paces with a happy hour event where guests (mostly commercial real estate brokers) met the Interiors team and signed-up to participate in the pick’em pool.

Each week participants logged into the customized pool website and picked winners based on the spread for the 12 games of the week.  A weekly winner was awarded a $25 American Express gift card for making exceptional picks, which led up to the final prize of the SEC Championship tickets.

Mullins had nothing but great things to say about the pool when I went to deliver the tickets, (granted, I was holding his coveted SEC tickets in my hand). He found the weekly recap emails, which consisted of key highlights from the previous weeks games and entertaining YouTube clips, to be a fun read and he complimented us on the event’s overall organization.

The first annual pool was a great opportunity for me to meet many of you!  Since Carter sold its property management and brokerage businesses to Cassidy Turley in September, there has been some confusion in the marketplace. This program provided Carter with a platform to let the commercial real estate community know our interiors team is still busy and strong, and we can team with any brokerage house. We have a proven process that is customized for each project, and appreciate any opportunity to present our skills and support the brokers’ efforts to maintain long lasting relationships with their clients. 

I would like to offer a special thanks to everyone who participated in our pool, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We are looking forward to stirring up the college rivalry again in 2012, in addition to a number of other exciting events. Stay tuned!

 

Carter Wins Watson Cup in Real Estate Softball Championship Game

By Bruce Propst, senior vice president, Carter

ATLANTA (August 24, 2011) – Carter wins back-to-back championships in the Atlanta Commercial Real Estate Softball League and retains possession of the coveted Watson Cup for another year. Winning successive titles in the highly competitive league is a rare feat not often accomplished over almost 30 years of the league’s existence. I think the team was inspired this year to go out on top as this was the last year that a Carter team will be in the league. The pending acquisition of Carter’s brokerage and management businesses by Cassidy Turley means that the CT team will have to pick up where the Carter team left off.

Carter has been in the league from the very start and played an integral part in the league’s founding.  In the early 1980’s, a Carter broker and former Georgia Tech baseball player named Larry Entrekin came up with the idea that Atlanta’s commercial real estate firms ought to form a softball league. I was the youngest broker at Carter at the time so I was given the task of calling all of the major brokerage firms at the time to see if they would be interested. The response was very positive and soon thereafter the formative league meeting was held in Carter’s offices then located at 1100 Spring Street. For many years the league enjoyed playing at the old Hellenic Center on Cheshire Bridge Road (thanks to Pete and Andy Alexander and John Micha) until the property was purchased and redeveloped as apartments, which somehow seems appropriate for a commercial real estate league. The league now plays games at Pace Academy’s Warren Road Field. Dave Watson, now with Grubb & Ellis, was the first real League Commissioner and served in the position for many, many years until the current commissioner, Doug Smith of Seefried Properties, took over.  

I asked Ward Entrekin, Larry’s son, who is a former college baseball player himself (Gator) and Carter’s shortstop, for his perspective on why the league had remained so successful over the years. 

“When you provide a competitive and social outlet for brokers that compete against each other every day for business and you throw in free beer and good food provided by generous landlords, you have a winning combination,” said Ward.

The 2011 Championship Carter team included John Akin, Jack Arnold, Watson Bryant, Ward Entrekin, Tim Farley, Eli Green, Ryan Meehan, Preston Menning, Bo Moore, Spence Searcy, Beau Terrell and David Zanaty.

Thanks to the Carter team, Doug Smith, Pace Academy, the generous landlords/food and drink sponsors, and all the teams participating this year for another great year of real estate softball. Watch out for that Cassidy Turley team, I hear they are pretty tough to beat.

 

Carter Completes New Practice House for Georgia State’s Football Team

By Todd Bradford, assistant project manager, Carter

The Georgia State Panthers now have a new practice field house for the football team. Carter recently completed the first phase of Georgia State’s outdoor recreational center. Located at 188 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, the facility offers convenient access to the Panther’s entire practice complex that includes a 100-yard synthetic turf field and 50-yard natural grass field.  The interior build out converted an old warehouse structure that dates back pre civil war to a 22,000-square-foot facility complete with training area, locker rooms, laundry facility, hydrotherapy pit and team gathering rooms.

The Panthers will begin using the facility when they start summer training in July. The 2011 season will be the second for Georgia State’s Division I FCS team.  For schedules and more information about the 2011 season, check out http://www.georgiastatesports.com

Two UGA Wishes Come True

On Saturday, Oct. 9, The University of Georgia had two wishes come true: Coach Richt and the Bulldogs received their first conference win, and Drew Wiese, got to see what it felt like to be a UGA football player. Drew, Carter’s Make-A-Wish child for this quarter, is 16-years-old and from Gainesville, Ga. His wish was to become a UGA football player for a day, which came true as a result of Carter and the Make-A-Wish program.

He began his day with a few gifts from Carter and Make-A-Wish including an official team jersey, UGA hat, autographed football and a bag full of Bulldog goodies. Then, off he went for a pre-game meeting with the coaches and team. Drew and his father participated in the esteemed “Dawg Walk” to the stadium where he then cheered his favorite team on from the sidelines between the hedges.

To see more pictures, view the album on Carter’s Facebook page.

Make-A-Wish Foundation was selected as Carter’s primary charity partner in 2007 and Drew’s wish is our 17th wish in 3 years. For more information about Make-A-Wish Foundation of Georgia and Alabama, visit www.wish.org.

Carey Poole brings more than 25 years of interior design and management experience to Carter's Interiors Project Management and Relocation Services group and has designed and managed a diverse set of projects ranging in size from 3,000 square feet up to 1 million square feet. She is well-versed in programming, space planning, furniture integration and layout, budget consulting, personnel management and contract negotiations with added experience in strategic and long-term planning and forecasting with added time spent in both first and second generation space up-fitting.