Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth County News-Thursday, March 25,1999
Business &
Industry
Stephen Stockton is
welcomed as new chef
at Hilton on Lake Lanier
■By Therese Allen
Staff Writer
vWhat if you could go with your
Sweetheart to a place with excellent,
.reasonably priced food, a magnifi
cent, waterfront view - and it was
only about 20 minutes away?
• Well, you can. “Windows,” at the
Hilton on Lake Lanier Islands, offers
'* -
Photo/Tom Brooks
Lake Lanier rental cottages offer many amenities,
all for around S2OO a night.
Rick Swan: ‘lt’s good to be home’
By Cheryl Vaughn
Features Writer
Rick Swan may have left Cumming after
high school in 1980 to pursue the bright
lights of New York City - indeed, he
worked on Madison Avenue in the fast
paced sweepstakes industry - but it took a
. visit to the South three years ago to sell
;hjs car for him to realize there’s truly no
place like home.
- Recently named Rookie of the Year by
the Forsyth Area Board of Realtors, Swan
■ind his clients are glad he did.
■ “It is such a rewarding thing, to see the
excitement of the home buyers,” says
Swan, who earned his realtor’s license
IR£■■ ■ jfl| .
* . ■" Photo/Tom Brooks
Rick Swan, left, who was named the 1999 Rookie of the Year, with
Ronnie Waller, 1998 president of the Forsyth Area Board of Realtors,
which recognized Swan with the award. ’
a unique dining experience.
A bank of floor to ceiling windows
line the back of the restaurant. The
view of Lake Sidney Lanier is one of
the most spectacular available and is
completely panoramic. The recently
refurbished space also offers a private
dining area for small groups or par
ties. The decor is modern rustic,
Lake Lanier rental
cottages offer view
and access to resort
As part of a $lO million investment, Lake Lanier Islands
added 30 rental houses that overlook the lake.
The homes, which feature two bedrooms and baths, are
equipped with large decks, fireplaces, full kitchens, hot tubs
and large, beautiful living spaces. In addition to having
their own private docks, renters have access to the resort’s
golf course and waterpark.
The rental cottages, available for approximately S2OO per
night, have been around for about a year. Ten were com
pleted by April of last year, with the remaining 20 ready for
rental by mid-summer 1998.
i Business people who choose to stay at the lake cottages
can use the Summit House, a large meeting hall near the
i resort housing.
Lake Lanier’s plans for the future include the creation of
Harbor Village, which will feature entertainment, food
operations and boutique retail outlets. The details for the
project have not yet been revealed.
Lake Lanier’s expansion has created some 500 additional
jobs for summer employment.
after diligent study through a home com
puter course and then took a job with
Prudential. He decided to give real estate
his full attention after clients of his
wholesale mobile home interior design
business urged him to get into the busi
ness.
It wasn’t easy.
“It was maybe a six-month process for
me,” he recalls. “I quit my other job and
pretty much went full force into it. You
have' to be disciplined to study and then
take the exams and state licensing tests.”
That same discipline and dedication
earned for Swan the 1999 Rookie of the
Year award, an honor bestowed by the
Forsyth Area Board of Realtors and peers
meaning the designers have attempted
to bring the outdoors in. A hand
painted tile mural of blue herons typi
cally seen on Lake Lanier graces a
wall and a walkway of stone encir
cles the buffet. Copper light fixtures
and soothing colors found in nature
See CHEF, Page 2B
in the industry.
“When somebody becomes Rookie of
the Year, it’s a bigger honor than some
body achieving it who has been in the
business 10 or 15 years with a built-up
base,” says Robert Aiken, regional man
aging broker for Prudential Georgia
Realty. “This is somebody who has over
come so many hurdles in a short time, a
well-rounded person with a good perspec
tive on life in general.
“Put into perspective that seven out of
10 newly licensed agents are out of the
business in less than a year and a half,”
Aiken continues. “By contrast, someone
who becomes Rookie of the Year under
stands that it’s tough when you’ve just
begun and have to be self-motivated,
don’t draw a paycheck, but still deter
mines that you’re going to be successful
and keep your eye on the gold ring
enough to keep doing the things you’re
supposed to do. It’s difficult.”
Swan, who was selected for the honor
not just because of sales production, but
also because of extensive community ser
vice and board participation, says he loves
his job.
“It’s very exciting to build a relationship
with someone and find out what their
wants and needs are,” he explains. “It
wasn’t very hard for me to get to know
people, because I’m very easygoing. And,
with my background in computers, I
enjoy doing the research that it takes to
find just what they’re looking for.”
He says it also helps that he knows the
local property from the perspective of a
native, and he has enjoyed restoring old
friendships from his youth.
But, most of all, Swan enjoys the very
things that won him the award in the first
place.
“I love working with people and being
active in the community,” he says,
describing his involvement in his church’s
youth activities and participation with his
sister’s special education outings. “It’s
it’s so great to be home.”
Physician practice is I ® -«;
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Photo/Tom Brooks
Executive Chef Stephen Stockton, with Hilton at Lake Lanier Islands, was inspired to
his career in culinary arts by the love of his grandmother’s southern home cooking. ’>
Company takes to the roof
for hot-air balloon venture
By Cheryl Vaughn
Features Writer
Don Hall just can’t seem to retire.
Why? He’s having too much fun
monkeying around.
“I had retired from AT&T and was
doing a little management consult
ing, but not much,” he says,
explaining how he made the transi
tion from hammock to larger-than
life balloon advertising. “I’d done
some consulting work with an
advertising company and recog
nized that these balloons, while
they may seem carnivalistic, do
work and have measurable sales
success.”
So Hall, his son and a partner,
Sandy Jones, found a heavily used
inflatable, shaped like a hot air bal
loon, and purchased it for S4OO.
“We set out with no business
cards, no nothing but a well-used
Toyota pickup, going door to door
with nothing but a photograph of
the balloon, saying ‘Would you like
to have this on your roof?’” recalls
Hall.
The idea was to grow their busi
ness into a basement operation,
large enough to keep a few advertis
ing balloons afloat. In six years,
they have become arguably the
largest such company in the nation,
with nearly 130 massive rooftop
balloons, a 6,000-square-foot ware
house and 1,700-square-foot office
in Gainesville.
Clients say the balloons do just
what you’d think - attract lots of
attention.
“Since Wal-Mart vacated their
space here, we’re basically in a
dead shopping center,” says Lance
White, owner of Lance’s Jeweler’s.
“But when I put a 40-foot Santa on
top of the building, people notice,
‘Oh, it’s Lance’s Jewelry!”’
Hall says while the character bal
loons do inspire a double-take from
passersby, the hot air balloon shape
is by far his most effective advertis
ing tool.
“Because that’s just what really
works more than anything else,” he
explains. “By that, I mean if you
put it up there and it says ‘lnventory
Reduction Sale,’ the balloon gets
their attention and the message is
very, very short and tells what’s
going on there, without distracting
from the sale.
“If you put a gorilla up there and it
says ‘lnventory Reduction Sale*
across its chest, the sign’s not as
large as it would be on a hot air
shape,” he continues. “Plus, they
see the gorilla and are attracted to it
instead of the message.”
Chuckling at the suggestion that
he is talking himself out of a lot of
gorilla advertising sales. Hall says
there are times when the gigantic .
characters are effective.
“There are applications when the
gorilla works,” he concedes.
“‘Monster Sale!' It does work. But
the one that rings the cash register
better than anything else is the hot
air shape, anywhere from 22 feet to
35 feet high.”
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