Sam Massell Wants Help for 'Mom and Pop' Businesses

Buckhead Coaliton President Sam Massell has called for special incentives to help small local "mom and pop" retailers.

Addressing a panel on retail reforms before the France Publication InterFace Retail Conference at the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead, the former Atlanta mayor said that small strip centers when they are purchased become more attractive to developers for high-rise construction with minimum if any ground-floor retail, according to a news release from the Buckhead Coalition.

He said that the surrounding neighborhoods prefer convenience type businesses rather than the chains they find in the malls, according to the release. They want walkable services like beauty parlors, gift shops, cleaners, shoe repair places, etc., he said.

Massell proposed providing incentives such as are given to create affordable housing: tax reductions, zoning favors, etc. to allow the leassors to subsidize the small merchants, the release said.

“In the long run,” he added, “the properties will be of greater value to the community and the developer.”