The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rail giant's HQ set for Atlanta move
Expected announcement today caps years spent wooing Norfolk Southern away from Virginia.
Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms are expected today to formally announce a completed deal to relocate the headquarters of railroad giant Norfolk Southern to Atlanta, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Deal has called a 2 p.m. news conference at the state Capitol in what will mark the culmination of years of work to recruit the Fortune 500 railroad away from its home in Norfolk, Va.
Spokespeople with the city and state Department of Economic Development declined to comment. A Norfolk Southern representative did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The people who spoke to the AJC about today’s news conference were not authorized to comment publicly.
Norfolk Southern joins PulteGroup, NCR and Mercedes-Benz USA among major global or North American headquarters recruited by the state over the past 10 years.
The announcement has been expected. The Norfolk Southern recruitment became one of the most public ever conducted under Deal after it was learned the railroad wanted to sell its land holdings in downtown Atlanta’s Gulch in order to fund a potential move to Midtown.
The Gulch land, meanwhile, forms the core of what developer CIM Group wanted to buy to build a mammoth 40-acre mix of apartments, offices, hotels and retail between the Five Points MARTA station and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Norfolk Southern’s proposed relocation became almost a footnote amid a tense monthslong debate over whether the Atlanta City Council would support an unprecedented incentive package for CIM to redevelop the lonely stretch of downtown parking lots and rail beds.
In late October, as the debate over a nearly $2 billion public financing package for the up to $5 billion Gulch development hung in the balance, Norfolk Southern CEO James Squires leveled a threat, saying his company wouldn’t move to Atlanta if the Gulch deal fell through.
“I would hate to see this slip away,” Squires told Atlanta Business Chronicle days before the council approved the package. “But if it does, we will move on.”
Last week, the city of Atlanta’s development arm, Invest Atlanta, approved $23.6 million in tax breaks for Norfolk Southern’s future headquarters campus in Midtown at West Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue. State tax credits for newly created jobs and other perks could increase the value of the incentive package by millions more.
Norfolk Southern plans a 750,000-square-foot tower totaling about $575 million, according to an Invest Atlanta document. The company is expected to relocate or create 850 jobs and retain more than 2,000 jobs currently located in Midtown near the Woodruff Arts Center.
The railroad has deep ties to Atlanta, tracing its roots to a predecessor here, and the company has more jobs in Georgia than in its home state of Virginia. The company recently expanded its Midtown operations center.
Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander said in an interview with the AJC that he had not yet received formal notice from Norfolk Southern.
In October, Alexander vowed not to enter a bidding war to keep the headquarters, noting that the railroad is obligated to maintain a major presence in his city through 2026. He said then the Atlanta City Council should not feel pressured by Norfolk.
Alexander said the railroad is under intense pressure to improve profitability, and he said he understands the business case for consolidating operations.
“If this is happening, I wish them well, but I hope they will continue to have a large corporate presence in Norfolk,” Alexander said Tuesday. “They’re a great corporate citizen.”