(press.) I sat down with Rose Scott at 90.1 WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station, for an update on West End Atlanta. Listen to “Closer Look: Ryan Gravel Shares The Latest on the West End Mall Re-Development.” My interview comes at minute 18:30 but keep listening to learn about a new $2.8 million partnership between the Wells Fargo Foundation and the nonprofit Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs Inc. (ACE) to promote the growth of diverse small businesses and create 500 jobs.

Excerpt > Ryan: “We believe strongly that not only is the vision that we’ve crafted best thing for the community and for the city and for that history and culture and legacy of West End, it will also be the most profitable. And so, we see a real opportunity to translate Atlanta’s cultural identity into real estate development in a way that hasn’t been done anywhere that I’m familiar with at scale. And so I think that that if we watered it down and did something ordinary, then, you know, I’m sure it would make money but it wouldn’t achieve…” Rose: “It would just be like everything else.” >More