At Tuesday’s Savannah Economic Development Authority’s (SEDA) November board meeting, the board named Loretta Cockrum to fill the unexpired term of a member who has moved from the area.
November 22, 2014 – At Tuesday’s Savannah Economic Development Authority’s (SEDA) November board meeting, the board named Loretta Cockrum to fill the unexpired term of a member who has moved from the area.
Ms. Loretta Cockrum is a recent transplant to Savannah from Miami, Fl. In 1978, she founded Foram Group, Inc . to provide fiduciary real estate services to high net worth individuals and families who owned or wished to own large farm, ranch or timber properties in the Southeastern United States.
Today, Foram Group manages the Brickell World Plaza project and more than 20,000 acres of farm, timberland and master planned communities in Georgia, South Carolina and Colorado.
In 2005, Foram assembled a vertical development team with over 50 years of combined construction management experience. Under the development leadership of Ms Cockrum, that team has completed the first phase of a two and one half million sq ft mixed use project on Brickell Avenue in Miami, Florida known as Brickell World Plaza. It is the First LEED Platinum office project in Florida and one of only 14 of its size in the world.
She serves as the CEO of Foram Development Bfc, LLC, Miami Condo, LLC and eighteen more corporations including Foram Contracting, Inc., Foram Management and Leasing, Inc. and Foram Group, Inc. of Georgia.
And, while she is a fairly new Savannah resident, she is not new to Savannah. Forum Group, Inc’s very public history is Savannah goes back to 2002 when the company announced an agreement for development of Jabot Tract in Pooler to be rezoned for single-family homes versus Ms. Cockrum’s original plans to develop the land for warehouses. At the time, local media reported that a “deal” was reached with then Mayor Buddy Carter, who was concerned about a large warehouse project similar to the Home Depot Distribution center in that area.
At the time, the Savannah Morning News reported that “Cockrum said she actually can make more money selling the land for houses rather than for distribution centers. Still, she maintains that that's not the best way to use the land. More houses will mean more traffic congestion, particularly along Pine Barren Road near the West Chatham Elementary and West Chatham Middle schools, she suggested.”
Her Foram Group, Inc. was one of the primary developers of the multi-use projects that exist today in Pooler including homes, restaurants, hotels and stores on the 1,800-acre area east of Pooler Parkway and north of Interstate 16.
Currently, in Miami, Ms. Cochrum is a member of the Advisory Board to the Miami Finance Forum’s board of directors which is comprised of senior business executives from a diverse group of industry sectors. The organization’s main objective is to establish South Florida as a global financial hub.