Profile of a new part owner

[Guest]

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2015/07/03/hotel-exec-shah-part-of-hawks-owner-group.html?ana=twt

I don't have a subscription, so paging @HawkItus to use one of your approximately 77 subscription accounts to post the article?

Fellow ACC fans might recall seeing Mit Shah before. I believe he's on the Wake Forest board of trustees. Oh and Karl Hess (worst official ever) made a bunch of racist comments towards Mit at a basketball game earlier this year. Thankfully Hess was fired.

[HawkItus]

Hotel exec Shah part of Hawks‘ Owner Group

 SUBSCRIBER CONTENT: Jul 3, 2015, 6:00am EDT

 

Mit Shah

Phil W. Hudson Staff Writer- Atlanta Business Chronicle Email  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn  | Facebook

One of Atlanta’s most prominent hotel executives is part of the group that now owns the Atlanta Hawks.

Mit Shah, CEO of Noble Investment Group, is one of some 15 owners, a handful with Atlanta ties, that took control of the team June 24 when the NBA formally approved the sale from Atlanta Spirit.

Tony Ressler, the Hawks’ new principal owner, said Shah and the others will each add value.

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“We have a great group of owners that offer real valuable input and come from a diversity of business and ethnic backgrounds and geographic locations including Atlanta, five or six of our investors and I think would offer great insight and help,” Ressler said. “The more Mit Shah is involved with our team and this community I think the better off we’ll be.”

The other Atlanta owners include Sara Blakely, founder of Atlanta-based Spanx; Blakely’s husband Jesse Itzler, co-founder of Marquis Jet; and Steve Koonin, CEO of the Hawks and Philips Arena. Michael Gearon Jr., Michael Gearon Sr. and Rutherford Seydel, who were part of the Atlanta Spirit ownership group, retain a small stake in the new group.

“We we were looking for owners, investors and partners that add knowledge,” Ressler said. “Mit has real estate knowledge. Sara has real business knowledge and business acumen.”

Shah said he is a big fan of the team, the city and the sport.

“I’ve been a fan of the Atlanta Hawks for a long time,” Shah said. “I’ve been an Atlantan for almost 25 years. I met my wife here, founded my business here in 1993, our kids grew up here.”

In addition to his emotional investment in Atlanta, Shah has also made a large and lasting financial investment. He said Noble has made $3 billion worth of investments across the country, much of it in the metro area.

Shah said when the opportunity came up to buy part of the team, one reason he decided to get involved was because he admired Ressler and the group of owners he was putting together.

“I got interested and engaged with what the potential of the Hawks could be and what it would mean to our city,” he said. “When Tony emerged as the buyer and Grant Hill, who went to Duke around the same time I went to Wake Forest, Jesse Itzler and his wife Sara got together, I found it to be a very interesting opportunity because of the people.”

Shah said he thinks the rest of the owners are also great additions.

“There’s a common vision that we collectively share: The role of the ownership is to provide support, provide resources and to allow management the ability to take that stability, support and resources and go and execute on behalf of the organization and be a benefit to the city,” he said. “That resonated with me.”

Shah said when he looked at his priorities going in, such as investing in education on the public school level and the private side around the city, he saw that the Hawks can enable communities in metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia.

“I know it’s a motivation of this ownership to contribute to the community and that’s a great ability for me and my family to take our foundation and to co-invest it along the Atlanta Hawks Foundation to make a difference in our community, which was primary in my thought.”

Shah also believes he can help connect the Hawks to Atlanta’s Indian-American community, which is the largest Asian-American population in the state with more than 100,000 people.

“India has such a big focus from the NBA in terms of connecting Indian-Americans here but also abroad and in India specifically,” he said. “Having the ability to help parlay the game of basketball in the community was something that I fell very strongly about.”

Shah also saw a real estate angle with the new stadium that will house the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta’s new major league soccer team being built just a few blocks away from Philips Arena.

“I was thinking and envisioning how that can be our own version of what L.A. Live has created,” Shah said. “You can combine components, not just entertainment and retail, but housing as well.”

Shah believes there will be greater vibrancy in the city core when more people live and socialize downtown.

“That’s something that I would love to continue to help our city focus on and be able to see to fruition,” he said.

Overall, the main reason Shah said he wanted to get involved with the ownership was to be a part of a something special with great ownership, management and players, while making a difference.

“Tony is the guy. I think life is too short to do things with people who you don’t respect trust and like and I’ve always believed that,” Shah said. “I’ve been extremely impressed by Tony and Grant and the team that Tony has put together. As an Atlantan I’m very excited and optimistic about what this will mean for our city.”

[Twinblade]

Group ownerships are a disaster.... how long before this new group starts fighting within each other too.

[hawkdude55]

Glad to see Koonin is still an owner. I'm not worried about this being a group...these guys are clearly a level above the past ownership group. It seems like Ressler is going to let Koonin and Bud/Wes do their thing and provide support when necessary

[NBASupes]

I think these guys will do well. 

[Guest]

If there is one thing they should know is how not to be the ASG.

[Dejay]

I think if we were given the $$$, we could've run the Hawks and Thrash better than the group that shall not be mentioned...

[RandomFan]

the group that shall not be mentioned...

 

We should decree that this is the nom de guerre that those hacks should henceforth always be known.