Mayor Max Bacon (l) presents Jack Halpern (r) with the Smyrna Citizen of the Year award.
After taking a leading role in transforming an area of Smyrna, Ga. with the new Belmont mixed-use development, Jack Halpern takes great pride in giving residents “a sense of identity and a connection to others,” he says.
And Smyrna recently said “thank you” to Jack, the Chairman of Halpern Enterprises, by naming him 2015 Smyrna Citizen of the Year.
At the heart of the new Belmont development is Smyrna Elementary School, a state-of-the-art facility that now anchors a new community that will feature single-family homes, luxury apartments and retail. Halpern Enterprises played a key role in encouraging the Cobb County Board of Education to build a school on the site.
For his part, Jack credits Smyrna leaders with having the vision to work with Halpern Enterprises to transform a location that was once the site of the old Belmont Hills Shopping Center, at one time the largest center in the Southeast.
“Smyrna has been blessed with fiscally responsible, visionary leaders,” Jack says.
For more on the award, read Jack’s profile in the Cobb Business Journal.