Economic Development News (Atlanta, Savannah, Covington: crime, chapel, purchases)

[ShenardL]

Originally Posted by HH82

South Downtown will be completely unrecognizable in 5-10 years, guaranteed. That ocean of surface parking lots around Garnett MARTA is about to go nuts with development.

If you have the money, buy some condos in downtown while the prices are reasonable.

[Ric 0_0]

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE: BKI), a software, data and analytics company that serves the housing finance continuum, including real estate data, mortgage lending and servicing, as well as the secondary markets. The cash and stock transaction values Black Knight at $85 per share, or a market value of $13.1 billion, and builds on ICE’s position as a provider of end-to-end electronic workflow solutions for the rapidly evolving U.S. residential mortgage industry.

The addition of Black Knight’s technology solutions, real estate and mortgage-related data assets, leading analytics, and its team of mortgage and technology professionals complements and strengthens ICE’s rapidly growing mortgage technology business. The combination will result in improvements in the mortgage lending process for borrowers and lenders by increasing automation and efficiencies that lower the cost of obtaining a mortgage, while harnessing data that can help current homeowners lower their monthly payments and lessen the likelihood of default.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...e-Black-Knight

[Born 2 Roll]

A legendary West Midtown nightclub could meet the wrecking ball if a New York City-based developer’s plans to reenter the Atlanta market come to fruition.

Global firm Tishman Speyer has filed plans with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to build a massive mixed-use venture that would replace longstanding Compound nightclub and another former warehouse property along Brady Avenue in Home Park, as Bisnow Atlanta first reported this week.

With its mix of South Beach-style indoor and outdoor party zones, Compound has been popping bottles at 1008 Brady Avenue for well over a decade and a half, next to a MARTA bus operating facility and active rail lines. Another nightclub next door, Republic Sports and Social, would also be included in the deal, according to Tishman Speyer’s Development of Regional Impact application.

Massive development in works to replace Compound nightclub, more
New York developer Tishman Speyer pitches mixed uses with 700 homes, offices, retail on Brady Avenue (Urbanize Atlanta)

[Born 2 Roll]

Japanese equipment maker Kubota Corp to expand Northeast metro Atlanta/Northeast Georgia operations with the construction of a new 650,000 square foot factory in Gainesville

Japanese equipment maker Kubota Corp. has announced plans to spend $140 million to build a new factory in northeast Georgia, adding 500 workers to the 3,000 it already employs in the region, including at the company’s Southeast Division headquarters in Suwanee.

Kubota Corp. will build a new factory in Gainesville to make front-end loaders. The factory will make 700 loaders a day.

The company says it will start construction this year and open the new factory in 2024. Kubota already makes front-end loaders at a factory in Jefferson, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away, but said it needs to free up capacity at the existing facility to make other attachments and implements to tractors and construction equipment...

... Kubota opened a $90 million research and development facility in Gainesville in April, which will eventually employ 200. The company told local news outlets that the new 650,000-square-foot (60,000-square-meter) factory would be located across a state highway from that facility.

Kubota to invest $140M in new Georgia factory, hiring 500 (WABE Atlanta/Associated Press)

[ShenardL]

Logistics giant Transportation Insight moving HQ from Hickory to Atlanta after series of deals

A global logistics provider headquartered in North Carolina is moving its home base to the Atlanta area after several years of rapid expansion in Georgia's largest metro.

Hickory-based Transportation Insight, one of the largest private companies in the greater Charlotte region, set the stage for a relocation to Dunwoody, Georgia — just north of Atlanta — with a series of acquisitions before the pandemic. It bought multiple companies in Atlanta's booming logistics sector, including Spend Management Experts, Platinum Circle Technologies and Nolan Transportation Group.

Transportation Insight just inked a 174,400-square-foot lease on the third and fourth floors of a new Dunwoody project called Campus 244. The third-party logistics provider is expected to move its existing area workforce of 1,200 into the project by late next year. It could add another 300 employees in Dunwoody, said CEO Ken Beyer.

Transportation Insight has seen its revenue jump from $2.8 billion to $4.3 billion since the end of 2018, according to previous statements from the company. Beyer told the Atlanta Business Chronicle it is growing its revenue at 50% per year.

Transportation Insight will keep an office in Hickory.

"Atlanta is a vibrant city where people want to come," Beyer said. "We hire a lot of people out of college, and they want to be part of a big city. We've found that Atlanta is easier to recruit to."

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlott...o-atlanta.html

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ShenardL

Logistics giant Transportation Insight moving HQ from Hickory to Atlanta after series of deals

A global logistics provider headquartered in North Carolina is moving its home base to the Atlanta area after several years of rapid expansion in Georgia's largest metro.

Hickory-based Transportation Insight, one of the largest private companies in the greater Charlotte region, set the stage for a relocation to Dunwoody, Georgia — just north of Atlanta — with a series of acquisitions before the pandemic. It bought multiple companies in Atlanta's booming logistics sector, including Spend Management Experts, Platinum Circle Technologies and Nolan Transportation Group.

Transportation Insight just inked a 174,400-square-foot lease on the third and fourth floors of a new Dunwoody project called Campus 244. The third-party logistics provider is expected to move its existing area workforce of 1,200 into the project by late next year. It could add another 300 employees in Dunwoody, said CEO Ken Beyer.

Transportation Insight has seen its revenue jump from $2.8 billion to $4.3 billion since the end of 2018, according to previous statements from the company. Beyer told the Atlanta Business Chronicle it is growing its revenue at 50% per year.

Transportation Insight will keep an office in Hickory.

"Atlanta is a vibrant city where people want to come," Beyer said. "We hire a lot of people out of college, and they want to be part of a big city. We've found that Atlanta is easier to recruit to."

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlott...o-atlanta.html

... So the company readily admits that it is moving its headquarters from Hickory, North Carolina to Atlanta (Dunwoody) because it is easier to recruit talent to a major city/metro like Atlanta than to a small city Hickory, NC, which is a community of about more than 40,000 residents located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 55 miles northwest of Charlotte.

[atler8]

Originally Posted by ShenardL

Logistics giant Transportation Insight moving HQ from Hickory to Atlanta after series of deals

A global logistics provider headquartered in North Carolina is moving its home base to the Atlanta area after several years of rapid expansion in Georgia's largest metro.

Hickory-based Transportation Insight, one of the largest private companies in the greater Charlotte region, set the stage for a relocation to Dunwoody, Georgia — just north of Atlanta — with a series of acquisitions before the pandemic. It bought multiple companies in Atlanta's booming logistics sector, including Spend Management Experts, Platinum Circle Technologies and Nolan Transportation Group.

Transportation Insight just inked a 174,400-square-foot lease on the third and fourth floors of a new Dunwoody project called Campus 244. The third-party logistics provider is expected to move its existing area workforce of 1,200 into the project by late next year. It could add another 300 employees in Dunwoody, said CEO Ken Beyer.

Transportation Insight has seen its revenue jump from $2.8 billion to $4.3 billion since the end of 2018, according to previous statements from the company. Beyer told the Atlanta Business Chronicle it is growing its revenue at 50% per year.

Transportation Insight will keep an office in Hickory.

"Atlanta is a vibrant city where people want to come," Beyer said. "We hire a lot of people out of college, and they want to be part of a big city. We've found that Atlanta is easier to recruit to."

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlott...o-atlanta.html

That loud, "Ouch!" you just heard came from the direction of North Carolina as news of this relocation plan came to be public.

Detailed info I found notes that Insight is the 4th largest public company headquartered in North Carolina. As such, no matter the number of jobs involved, this deal should not be overlooked in terms of it's significance.

It somewhat salves any wounds remaining from past deals and business plans wherein N.C. has "stolen" or taken Atlanta-based companies via outright purchases or reorganizations.

As a super-aggressive friend of mine in Charlotte who was a v.p. in a banking giant said to me years ago, "We are going to eat your lunch!"
And since then, businesses in that state, in particular banking, have acted in those terms.

[Ric 0_0]

Originally Posted by atler8

That loud, "Ouch!" you just heard came from the direction of North Carolina as news of this relocation plan came to be public.

Detailed info I found notes that Insight is the 4th largest public company headquartered in North Carolina. As such, no matter the number of jobs involved, this deal should not be overlooked in terms of it's significance.

It somewhat salves any wounds remaining from past deals and business plans wherein N.C. has "stolen" or taken Atlanta-based companies via outright purchases or reorganizations.

As a super-aggressive friend of mine in Charlotte who was a v.p. in a banking giant said to me years ago, "We are going to eat your lunch!"
And since then, businesses in that state, in particular banking, have acted in those terms.

I believe it’s the 4th largest private company in NC. But yes, definitely an interesting situation. However, it seems like this move was more similar to the Norfolk Southern or Newell Brands relocations as it seems like Atlanta was their main employment base and where many of the executives lived.

“ In the Atlanta Business Journal article, Transportation Insight CEO Ken Beyer said the company’s executive team already lives in Atlanta.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/hickory...48272.amp.html

“ Transportation Insight’s 11-acre downtown Hickory campus features more than 70,000 square feet of office space, anchored by the Global Building inside the historic hosiery mill.”
https://www.catawbaedc.org/news/tran...m%20this%20era.

And their new Dunwoody building will be more than double the size of their current headquarters in Hickory.

[Ric 0_0]

“ BUFORD, Ga. and FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OneWater Marine Inc. (NASDAQ: ONEW) (“OneWater” or the “Company”) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. (NASDAQ: OBCI) (“OBCI” or “Ocean Bio-Chem”), a leading supplier and distributor of appearance, cleaning, and maintenance products for the marine industry and the automotive, powersports, recreational vehicles, and outdoor power equipment markets, for $13.08 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $125 million. As part of the transaction, OneWater will also acquire OBCI’s affiliate, Star Brite Europe, Inc. Upon closing of the transaction, both OBCI and Star Brite Europe, Inc. will be integrated into T-H Marine Supplies, LLC, OneWater’s subsidiary and strategic growth platform for parts and accessories businesses.”

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...-Chem-Inc.html


Buford based OneWater Marine is growing again.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by atler8

As a super-aggressive friend of mine in Charlotte who was a v.p. in a banking giant said to me years ago, "We are going to eat your lunch!"

Bring it. The ATL has handled many bigger threats than that.