Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has tapped longtime business and political consultant David Brand to advise him on how to involve more minority-owned businesses in the city’s growth, the mayor announced Wednesday at the city Pension Investment Board meeting.
Brand is the chief executive of MSG Public Affairs, has worked for President Joe Biden and is the chair of the city’s pension board. Soon, he will be advising Dickens on how to bring more minority-owned businesses into major projects like the transformation of the Gulch into Centennial Yards and the development of more affordable housing across the city.
“We want to make sure that all businesses in the city of Atlanta benefit from that,” Brand said at Wednesday’s pension board meeting. He has served as chair since January 2023, but will be stepping down in October because of his new role. The mayor has not yet set an exact timeline for when Brand will start as his adviser, but is eyeing the beginning of next year.
Dickens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he wants to help educate minority-owned businesses on how to win city contracts, as well as work on large projects that aren’t coming from City Hall but are adjacent to his administration, like Centennial Yards.
“Everything across the city is about continuing the legacy of minority business enterprises and making sure that there’s more opportunity for them,” Dickens said.
The move comes as several multibillion-dollar projects are set to transform the city, particularly downtown.
Late last year, tech entrepreneurs purchased a 10-block swath of south downtown that they are planning to turn into an entrepreneurship hub. A few blocks away, Centennial Yards will change the 50 acres between Mercedes-Benz Stadium and MARTA’s Five Points into a residential and entertainment complex.
The new role is intended to help ensure that minority businesses are part of the transformation, Dickens said.
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