Georgia makes a pitch for General Electric’s headquarters (Atlanta: fit in, house)

[Pemgin]

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

I'll say this: If Georgia has a more business-friendly tax climate than Connecticut, then there should be no need for the state government to use any tax incentives for them to move here. There's no reason to give such incentives to companies the size of GE anyway, especially considering GE pays no federal taxes. If they want to relocate, they can spend their own money to do so, and they can pay the same taxes to the state of Georgia that other businesses in the state already do.

I heartily agree.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

I wonder if they'll push for it to be around Savannah...

No. Savannah (and every other metro in Georgia for that matter) lacks the skilled, educated workforce for a corporate headquarters of this caliber and it lacks many of the amenities its employees are used to. And the only competition it would have to worry about from SC would be in the Charlotte suburbs, but most of the large-profile companies there were previously located in Charlotte and just skipped the border to have access to the same workforce but pay lower taxes and get generous incentives.

[Poncey]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

I wonder if they'll push for it to be around Savannah...

A corporate HQ of this significance will likely require to locate near an airport with extensive connections. In other words, the Atlanta area.

[Clayton white guy]

Near an airport? Wouldn't be something if the General Electric World Headquarters became the anchor tenant at the proposed "airport city" development? Now, before all you lovely "northsidecentric" posters on here wax poetically about the virtues of North Fulton, Cobb, and Gwinnett Counties compared to the southside suburbs hear me out. Connecticut, where they are moving from, is dominated by small towns (Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford excluded and they are more mid-sized despite being adjacent the the New York City behemoth) A good many of these workers would be used to these small New England burgs and would feel quite comfortable in small towns in Fayette, South Fulton, Coweta, and even Clayton and Henry Counties. Thanks to the airport's superior connectivity with MARTA, those that choose to live Intown or in the closer northern or eastern suburbs could also easily commute. Now, before you put your collective "the world drops off at I-20" noses in the air consider this fact: Porsche LOVES their new digs and its airport adjacent location!

[cwkimbro]

Porsche is a bit smaller. It only staffs about 400 people and they had special needs. They needed 26 acres for that test track. They estimate 30,000 Porsche or potential Porsche drivers will visit the headquarters. They were directly trying to tap into being a place consumers could easily get to, something unique for a corporate headquarters. It was a great thing for the Southside and something to build on.

GE doesn't have those needs. With over 5000 corporate employees they will need access to the region's best asset, well educated professional services workers.

If we want to put our best foot forward we are pitching them Midtown and further north.

Connecticut is a small town culture, but all of those small towns are clustered in areas with a great deal of wealth and highly talented workers.

I really want to help the Southside grow, but it won't happen with a single magical golden spike like this. It will happen over time bits at a time and a major headquarters this big and important will take the best assets the region can provide to land.

Sadly most of the professional services, technical services, and information services workers are on the northside of town in large numbers. This is what the pickiest employers that are hardest to win will value.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

No. Savannah (and every other metro in Georgia for that matter) lacks the skilled, educated workforce for a corporate headquarters of this caliber and it lacks many of the amenities its employees are used to. And the only competition it would have to worry about from SC would be in the Charlotte suburbs, but most of the large-profile companies there were previously located in Charlotte and just skipped the border to have access to the same workforce but pay lower taxes and get generous incentives.

Didn't you hear? $25mil of the $100mil transit funding was just spent to build a training center for auto manufacturers!

[Tryska]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Porsche is a bit smaller. It only staffs about 400 people and they had special needs. They needed 26 acres for that test track. They estimate 30,000 Porsche or potential Porsche drivers will visit the headquarters. They were directly trying to tap into being a place consumers could easily get to, something unique for a corporate headquarters. It was a great thing for the Southside and something to build on.

GE doesn't have those needs. With over 5000 corporate employees they will need access to the region's best asset, well educated professional services workers.

If we want to put our best foot forward we are pitching them Midtown and further north.

Connecticut is a small town culture, but all of those small towns are clustered in areas with a great deal of wealth and highly talented workers.

I really want to help the Southside grow, but it won't happen with a single magical golden spike like this. It will happen over time bits at a time and a major headquarters this big and important will take the best assets the region can provide to land.

Sadly most of the professional services, technical services, and information services workers are on the northside of town in large numbers. This is what the pickiest employers that are hardest to win will value.

Do you really think professional service workers don't live South of I-20 as well? I do. And I actually used to work for them.

[Tryska]

One thing I will say about GE though - is that while they certainly hold a certain cache, they may not be the best big fish to catch. They tend to rely very heavily on contractor positions - they have fulltime staff as well in the corporate offices, but the majority of their employees pretty much from middle management on down, are contractors. The pay rates are decent though, but they save themselves money on benefits. Which it could be argued, spreads the wealth to a mess of contracting firms. however, they tend to behave with their vendors much like they are behaving with Connecticut. "If I don't get things the way I want them I will take my ball and go home" and they would randomly decide they were going to pay vendors less cuz they felt like it. And the vendors would suck it up, because they were the big fish. Total Walmart Syndrome.


The other thing about them - they are extraordinarily sensitive to fluctuations in the stock market. If they have a bad quarter, layoffs are inevitable (i went in the post 9/11 round). The problem with that, is that they dump several hundred to several thousand employees on the labor market at once.

In hindsight for me it was a blessing. I love where I am now. GE was too big and hive-like for me. I did learn a lot of intangibles there though, and it was great for my resume.

[magnetar]

New corporate headquarters are nice. But luring them here with a one-two punch of low corporate taxes and tax incentives is a pretty bad way to do it. For one, what happens in the future when Georgia has to raise taxes to pay for all the infrastructure we're failing to maintain now? And second, GE is going to create jobs, but their moving here would also cost us money. If they're enjoying such low taxes, the only ones left to pick up the rest of their share are the rest of us.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Tryska

Do you really think professional service workers don't live South of I-20 as well? I do. And I actually used to work for them.

Actually... Despite that you're trying to turn this black and white and put words in my mouth... that is somewhat close to what I'm saying.

No one ever said they don't live South of I-20.

What I did say is: "...most of the professional services, technical services, and information services workers are on the northside of town in large numbers."

The following are images of from some older Regional Snapshots from the ARC on where certain workers live.









So... yes ... there is much truth to what I was previously saying and there is plenty of data to back this up. Many North American cities have what planners and geographers have started loosely calling the 'favored quarter' that naturally exists in many cities. What happens is there is a reciprocal relationship to company locations seeking out certain employees and high-value employees spending more to be located near existing bases of high paying jobs. Most cities that break away from this are usually when the region has a much higher than average base of high paying jobs (ie. NYC, DC, San Francisco) or when it has unique geographical features that curb growth in different directions. Even then, there is usually a stronger quarter in most cities.

For better and worse there are reasons why corporate locations happen the way they do.


So the take away from this is:

1) When we absolutely have to put our best foot forward to land a company, we have to realistic about what that company wants/needs and look at where we can best give it that.

2) To build up the Southside we have to built up a better base of talent to attract more businesses South and that is harder to do. Therefore we need to pay attention to mid-size companies or branches of companies in most cases that specifically want direct access to amenities unique to the Southside... this is largely going to be the airport. (A good place to start would be regional sales offices, regional client support networks for travel intensive companies)


Also, by looking at these maps it is easier to see why Perimeter Center has become so valuable. It is closer to the geographical center for capturing most of this intellectual talent.


Just to show a few more maps.. This map is the vice versa. Not where workers are, but where the corresponding jobs are.

Areas that important workers vs export: (all job types)



Areas that are importing workers, but the specific top 5 job categories generally filled by more highly educated workers: