Why Atlanta Made Amazon's Shortlist for HQ2

Atlanta has become a front runner in the race to become the home of Amazon’s HQ2. While we aren’t sure who will ultimately land the new Headquarters, the mention of Atlanta has caused a lot of buzz for many tech companies. So, Why Atlanta? Wildmor Advisors is here to give you the rundown on Atlanta’s explosive growth.

For starters, Amazon and other technology-based firms are attracted to the top tier talent pool. Atlanta has a fluid market of about 40,000-50,000 graduates entering the job market each year. Local universities include Emory University (20 on the list of Top National Universities), Georgia Institute of Technology (34 on the list of Top National Universities and top 10 engineering schools), The University of Georgia, Spelman College, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Morehouse College, and others. Additionally, Atlanta has a growing list of coding schools (The Iron Yard, DigitalCrafts, Tech Talent South) focused on programing and developing for tech minds.

Atlanta also has a multitude of tech incubators and cutting-edge developments that are driving the buzz. For example, health insurance superstar, Anthem, announced last year that it is building an IT center in Midtown, scheduled for completion by 2020.  They will staff over 3,000 IT professionals. NCR also just opened their global headquarters in a brand new state-of-the-art building in Midtown. Multiple tech incubators such as Centergy, CODA, Alpharetta’s tech hub initiative, and Comcast’s new incubator are providing a structured environment for innovative businesses to grow.  Co-working spaces such as WeWork, Industrious, Spaces, Roam and others are competing to grow their footprint in this thriving mecca.

Atlanta is planning to invest in a smart future with their Atlanta SmartCity Strategic Infrastructure Initiative. The purpose is to create and implement new technology to improve the city and give it additional support. This is attractive for Amazon as they would be adding around 50,000 jobs/commuters to the mix.

Overall, Atlanta is a thriving city, offering a wide variety of educational opportunities, a steady stream of intelligent minds, the “World’s Busiest Airport,” a high quality of living with a comparatively low cost of living, varied rapid transit options, and many other benefits. We see many large corporations wanting to have a flag planted in Atlanta as the hub of the Southeast.  Overall, it is a very attractive city for Amazon to land in and also hopes to continue to attract new technological firms in the future.

State Farm Campus

Along with Mercedes-Benz, central Perimeter has another large corporate campus under construction. State Farm is in the process of building a new campus at the intersection of Hammond Dr NE & Perimeter Center Pkwy NE. The new campus, to be built in two phases, is led by Dallas-based developer KDC, architecture firm Cooper Carry & Associates, and general contractor Holder Construction. This project is said to be the largest corporate office project in metro Atlanta history.

 Over the past few years, State Farm has been slowly relocating its employees to the area and currently has over one million SF in subleases in the area. They are planning on adding about 3,000 metro Atlanta jobs over the next several years, with plans to eventually employ more than 8,000 in metro Atlanta once both phases are complete.

 Ground broke over two years ago for Phase One, which is nearing completion. The 600,000 SF building, known as Park Center, features 13 stories of office space, a 175 room hotel, and eight-levels of above ground parking. There is also retail and restaurant space located on the ground level. The campus, located in an area infamous for its congested traffic, will also be directly connected to the Dunwoody Marta station. State Farm hopes that this connection will encourage people to use public transportation and ease some of the traffic problems around Perimeter Mall.

If you haven’t already seen the progress for yourself, take a look at our gallery of the nearly completed building.