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From primary school through graduate school, Bill Adams (BBA70, MBA74) stayed within a 1/2-mile block of downtown Atlanta—attending a parochial school near the Capitol, high school at St. Joseph, and Georgia State for his bachelor’s and graduate degrees. It made sense when he got ready to establish his own real estate business, he’d stay nearby.

Adams opened his brokerage in the former Masonic Lodge Temple in Grant Park in 1979. With a background in commercial real estate, working for Cousins Properties, he planned to continue in the commercial side of the field. However, his friendships and his past kept getting in the way. Neighbors wanted his help in selling their homes, and after seeing several of the older residents scammed, he relented and slowly began a move toward the residential side of the real estate business. Today Adams Realtors has three office locations and 30 agents who offer both commercial and residential real estate services with a particular emphasis on residential transactions in in-town neighborhoods such as Decatur, Avondale Estates, East Point, Kirkwood, East Atlanta, Edgewood, East Lake, Ormewood Park and Grant Park.

Adams himself grew up in Grant Park and at an early age was involved in activism there. While working on his undergraduate degree in the late 1960’s, he was involved with the Model Cities program, an early in-town revitalization effort in Grant Park. In 1974 he joined the forerunner of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association. Later he was elected president of the Neighborhood Housing Services program, which promoted lending in in-town neighborhoods in Atlanta and protested the practice of redlining by banks solely on the basis of neighborhoods deemed too risky. Soon after he finished his MBA in finance, he was among the early urban pioneers in Atlanta, buying his first house in Grant Park for $7,500.

During his 33 year career, Adams has seen the revival and gentrification of the neighborhoods he has championed. Whereas the condo market is overbuilt, single family home sales remain solid, he says, with houses tending to go under contract within 90 days. From his vantage point, Adams finds people moving in not only for character and diversity but also for easier commutes.

Decatur, in particular, is a poster child for New Urbanism, says Adams. Decatur offers good schools, pedestrian-friendly walkways, shops and restaurants alongside office space, and easy transportation. "I can get from my house to the airport for $1.75 on MARTA within 45 minutes," says Adams, who now makes his home in Decatur. Like other neighborhoods, Decatur is wrestling with how to handle infill of new two-story houses alongside post-WWII bungalows and how to keep the character of downtown while encouraging the construction of higher density condominiums in retail areas.

Adams is keeping a watchful eye not only from a business perspective but also as a homeowner himself. "The new Southern Company building downtown won’t affect me except maybe to raise my utility bill," he says, "but all of us are interested in what’s happening in our own neighborhood."

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