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Sweet Auburn Works — Interview-Series / Partnership Intro

Target: Sweet Auburn Works (SAW) — sweetauburnworks.com

Tier: A — Sweet Auburn Historic District commercial-corridor coalition; the most story-dense corridor intown

Channel: Email (info@sweetauburnworks.com) / LinkedIn DM / phone 470-240-4909

Contact: LeJuano Varnell, Executive Director (primary); Nancy Hall White, Board Chair (board-level fallback)

Built: 2026-09-12 (night-shift)

Wedge: Interview-first, same play as the L5P series and the Midtown/CAP items — the interview is the door; the relationship yields paid work / funding / sponsorship downstream.

Context

Sweet Auburn Works is the 501(c)3 preservation-based economic development org for the Sweet Auburn Historic District, chartered to "Preserve. Promote. Revitalize." the corridor's commercial and cultural legacy. Sweet Auburn is the densest story in the city — this is where Martin Luther King Jr. was born, where Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center sit, where the APEX Museum and the Sweet Auburn Curb Market anchor a Black commercial corridor that goes back to the early 1900s. It's the only corridor on the main-street list with civil-rights context this deep.

SAW's flagship project is Reconnecting Sweet Auburn, funded by Invest Atlanta, SAW, and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, working with Perkins & Will, Nelson\Nygaard, and the Partnership for Southern Equity to repair the harm done when the I-75/85 Downtown Connector tore through the neighborhood in the 1960s. They applied for an $800,000 Reconnecting Communities Pilot grant in late 2024 and ran public meetings into spring 2025. That's a living, still-unfolding story, and right now it's told through StoryMaps, feedback boards, and PDFs. The businesses and the people on the corridor don't get a camera. That's the gap GCV fills.

The interview-first wedge is the same one running in L5P and pitched to Midtown Alliance and CAP/ADID: a short series featuring the corridor's businesses (and the Reconnecting work itself) is a storytelling asset SAW can hand to its board, its funders (Invest Atlanta, ADID, NPS, the National Trust, the King Center), and the community, and it's the door for GCV into paid series work, heritage and fundraising video, and sponsorship downstream.

Verification (this session): Org confirmed active — sweetauburnworks.com live with full nav, leadership page and Reconnecting project page all current. Executive Director LeJuano Varnell (since Oct 2016; Morehouse BA in Economics, Boston College MS in Finance, ex-FleetBoston private equity) has his own bio page and is the clear day-to-day lead. Board Chair Nancy Hall White (Whitehall Strategy Group). Published contact on every page: info@sweetauburnworks.com · 470-240-4909 · PO Box 55250, Atlanta GA 30308, plus Facebook/Instagram @sweetauburnworks. No direct email for Varnell is published.

Message — EMAIL (to LeJuano Varnell via info@sweetauburnworks.com)

Subject: A short video series on Sweet Auburn's businesses

LeJuano —

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The Reconnecting Sweet Auburn story is what got me to write this. What the Connector did to Auburn Avenue in the '60s, and what you're trying to put back. That story gets told, but the businesses still on the corridor don't usually get that same camera.

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I make short documentary video in Atlanta, Ghost Coast Video. I'm putting together a short interview series over in Little Five Points right now, five minutes with a shop owner in their place, then a 60-second cut they can post. The person who built it, saying why it matters.

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That's a series Sweet Auburn could run on its own businesses. I'd put the first one together on me, no invoice, you pick the business. If it lands, we figure out the rest.

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Worth a conversation?

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— Brandyn
ghostcoast.video

Message — LINKEDIN DM (shorter, 1:1 to LeJuano Varnell)

LeJuano — I make short documentary video in Atlanta, Ghost Coast Video. I'm running a short interview series with L5P business owners, and Sweet Auburn's the natural next district. I'd like to pitch a short video series featuring the corridor's businesses. First one's on me, you pick the business. Worth a quick chat?

Downstream asks (after the first interview lands — don't lead with these)

Before sending

1. Verify LeJuano Varnell is still ED. Sourced from the live site this session; the footer copyright says 2024 and his bio references his 2016 start, so confirm on LinkedIn or the SAW office line before sending. If he's moved, Nancy Hall White (Board Chair) is the right fallback for a board-level intro.

2. Channel: No direct email for Varnell is published. info@sweetauburnworks.com is the box and may route to staff; LinkedIn DM to LeJuano Varnell is the warmer 1:1; phone 470-240-4909 is the direct line. Pick one, don't triple-send.

3. Don't name-drop specific businesses unless you can confirm they're actually on the corridor. "You pick the business" sidesteps that.

4. The L5P reference is the honest proof. If the L5P series hasn't actually filmed anything yet, keep it as "putting together" rather than "running." Adjust if any L5P episodes are done.

5. SAW is a mission/funder org, not a BID. Land the pitch as "storytelling that serves the mission" (heritage, the Reconnecting repair story), not a hard commercial sell. The interview-first wedge already does this — keep it soft.

6. Word count: ~130 in the email body. Good.

Status log