Vinings GA Real Estate

Theatre at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Named For

Businessman, Civic Leader, Visionary John A. Williams

Opulent Performance Hall Honors Staunch Advocate and Patron of CEPAC

ATLANTA , September 19, 2005 — The elegant theatre of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre will bear the name of businessman and civic leader John A. Williams, whose early and enduring support for the project has been a driving force in its development.

The John A. Williams Theatre will honor the civic leader who chaired the agency which spearheaded development of the Cobb Galleria Centre in the mid-1980s, and whose passionate leadership helped keep alive the vision of a companion world-class performing arts centre for the area.

Williams has pledged $10 million toward development of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (CEPAC). “Those of us who know John and who know of his involvement in this project can see the John Williams philosophy and signature all over it, including his insistence that this should be a worldclass facility,” said Earl Smith, chairman of the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority. “John was a strong advocate for the centre and he gave freely of his financial resources, knowledge, influence and strength to its development. I cannot think of a more visionary person.

In Cobb County and in communities throughout metro Atlanta, John Williams has been gracious in his support of good causes.” An Atlanta native well known for directing and coordinating real estate developments in the metropolitan area for nearly 40 years, Williams was founder of Post Properties, Inc. and currently serves as president and chief executive officer of Corporate Holdings, LLC. His extensive civic involvement has included memberships on boards of directors for the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Regional Commission and Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, and chairmanships of the Cobb County and Metro Atlanta chambers of commerce.

“Honoring My Commitment”

For his part, Williams said the theatre-naming honor is upstaged, happily, by his delivering on a longstanding dream and commitment. “Years ago, when we began talking about a performing arts centre, I committed to Earl Smith and others a substantial personal gift to the project,” Williams said. “I was thinking not of a naming opportunity but of what a phenomenal project this would be if we could pull it together.”

“The performing arts centre is a dream that a number of us shared. I feel now like I am fulfilling a promise I made to myself and others.”

The CEPAC theatre —the pulse of the cultural and entertainment venue—will feature striking interior design accented with waves of metal surfaces that, when lit, create a majestic, sparking sway ceiling; and floating side walls that house the performance hall’s private box seats.

Williams was chairman of the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority when the Cobb Galleria Centre project was conceived. In that capacity, he was intensely involved in planning the project and in supervising its construction. “We planned for and always believed that on this great piece of property we would have a complex which included a performing arts centre,” he said.

Several years ago, Williams was tapped to chair an ad hoc committee to advance development of the performing arts centre project. “John’s leadership and total commitment to the authority, the Cobb Galleria Centre project and the new performing arts centre never wavered. He has been an inspiration,” said Barbara E. Williams, president of the recently established Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Foundation.