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DeKalb County Business Coverage

Chamber president weighs in on DeKalb’s job outlook

With the nation having recently celebrated Labor Day 2012 some are cautiously optimistic as America struggles to recover economically. Kathy Mitchell, The Champion’s managing editor, asked Leonardo McClarty, president & CEO of the DeKalb Chambe...

Pedal power: 41 years and counting

“If we were ripping people off, we wouldn’t have lasted this long,” said Fred Boykin, owner of Bicycle South, which has been in business for 41 years. Photo by Kathy Mitchell
Fred Boykin and Mark Zuckerberg have more than one thing in common. Zuckerberg attended Havard. Boykin went to the “Harvard of the South.” Another shared interest: Both presided over successful business startups in college.  Zuckerberg (with a l...

Stone Mountain CID seeks economic development ideas

The Stone Mountain Community Improvement District (CID) is seeking public input on a plan to create 2,000 jobs in the business park by the end of 2013. “Our goal is to fill…empty buildings in our area to create those jobs,” said Emory Morsberge...

Picketers protest Walmart again

Disappointed with a recent meeting with the developer of Suburban Plaza, protestors take their anti-Walmart message to the streets. Photo by Andrew Cauthen
Flash flooding in Decatur July 13 did not stop a group from protesting a proposed Suburban Plaza Walmart. Carrying handmade picket signs, members of Good Growth DeKalb, which is opposed to the Walmart development, gathered at the usually busy interse...

Twelve 24 Boutique celebrates the plus-size woman

Owners Melanie Williams, left, and Angela Hargro say they have complementary business skills. The day of the grand opening, the store was crowded with shoppers. Photos by Kathy Mitchell
Angela Hargro said that the boutique in downtown Decatur that she opened with partner Melanie Williams was “born out of frustration as a shopper.” “It was so hard to find clothes in my size that didn’t look like something somebody’s grandmo...

Leadership DeKalb wins IKEA’s office makeover contest

Katherine Mason is all smiles as she shows off the new look of her office.
Leadership DeKalb in its 26-year history has been involved in makeovers of a sort. By training and inspiring community leaders, the organization has transformed communities in which these leaders work and volunteer. Earlier this month Leadership DeKa...

Sugar Moon rises in Oakhurst area

Amy Kiefer, left, and her cousin and business partner Catherine Pfitzer show off their baked goods available at Sugar Moon Bake Shop in Oakhurst. Photos by Travis Hudgons
There are a number of ways for people to relive stress. It’s a good thing for folks in the Oakhurst area that when Amy Kiefer is stressed she bakes. Kiefer, chief cupcake baker, and her cousin Catherine Pfitzer, chief cupcake marketer, are the owne...

Businesses coming to DeKalb despite shaky economy

After experiencing four record sales months, Steelmart owners have no regrets about relocating their company from Gwinnett County to DeKalb County earlier this year. “We’re happy with our move,” said Brian Satisky, co-owner of the full-service ...

New development coming to Covington Highway

Developers of the once defunct Panola Slope mixed-use project hope the complex spurs economic development on Covington Highway. Photo by Andrew Cauthen
Running from Avondale Estates to near Stonecrest Mall in unincorporated Lithonia, 12-mile Covington Highway is the focus of some new economic development. A month-old RaceTrac gas station is causing traffic jams along Covington Highway as it engages ...

A petit bit of France comes to Kirkwood

Marchet Sparks said she was inspired by small markets throughout the French countryside, but her customers seem attracted to Le Petit Marche as a breakfast and lunch destination.
When Marchet Sparks visited France in 2004, traveling extensively throughout the southern Provençal region then up to Paris and Normandy, she was charmed by little markets with freshly prepared foods and local goods that dotted throughout the cou...

Stone Mountain business group says tax paying off

For a year, some Stone Mountain business owners have been taxing themselves to help curtail crime, blight and empty commercial buildings along Mountain Industrial Boulevard. Businesses owners in the year-old Stone Mountain Community Improvement Distr...

Vet invests in future vets

Students in DeKalb County are learning that veterinary science is not about playing with puppies and kittens. “It is sometimes, but most of the time…we do a lot of preventative medication,” said Dr. Paula Murray, a veterinarian at Snapfinger Cr...

Mall debuts ‘fitting room of the future’

A 10-second body scan inside the booth takes a shopper’s measurements at 20,000 data points.
Shoppers who dislike going to several stores at the mall and trying several sizes before finding a good fit may be pleased to know some malls now have a way to make the process easier. Me-Ality™—Measured Reality, a booth in which a 10-second body...

Women talk to women about acquiring and keeping financial resources

An afternoon of free financial advice drew approximately 25 women to the Wesley Chapel Public Library April 28 as the Decatur/DeKalb chapter of Coalition of 100 Black Women hosted the first seminar in its My Sister’s Keeper series. Although the ser...

Cake Café owner make desserts her grandmother’s way

Ardra Tippett says all her desserts are made fresh and from scratch. Photo by Kathy Mitchell
The bright gold painted converted residence on Candler Road that houses Cake Café almost looks like a confection itself. Inside a busy staff churns out the types of made-from-scratch goodies that make Southerners eager to get to the dining table, in...

Small store offers residents a ‘taste’ of country life

On a gray April afternoon three large steel pots sit by the side of the road, steam rising into the air as the smell of boiling peanuts makes its way across the dirt parking lot off busy LaVista Road. Behind the pots stand David’s Produce & Spe...

County: ‘One DeKalb Works’ working to train workers

DeKalb County officials say they are getting ready to put DeKalb residents in some of the 4,000 jobs expected to be created by its watershed improvement project over the next several years. The county will use its First Source ordinance to ensure tha...

Unknowns surround county’s ‘job stimulus plan’

A sign at Wade Walker Park advertises DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis’ One DeKalb Works initiative, which has been described as a job stimulus plan incorporating the county’s billion-dollar watershed improvement project. Some county commissioners say One DeKalb Works has nothing to do with the construction of a new YMCA facility at Wade Walker Park. Photo by Andrew Cauthen
Representatives of the colleges that are supposed to be working on DeKalb County’s billion-dollar job stimulus plan don’t know much about it. In late March, a DeKalb official told a Board of Commissioners committee that the county is working with...

Employer committees link employers and labor department

More than 40 years ago, the newly created National Employer Council recommended that each state incorporate local employer committees to ensure employer input in the way state labor departments deliver their services. The main goal, according to the ...

Obama executive optimistic about GM plant

A meeting with an executive in President Barack Obama’s administration left leaders in DeKalb County optimistic about the development potential of the closed General Motors plant in Doraville. “There are very credible players here who have not on...

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