Gultch/CIM Group Development

[smArTaLlone]

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...-downtown.html

The Fortune 500 company looking to move its corporate headquarters to the Gulch in downtown Atlanta is Norfolk Southern Corp., Atlanta Business Chronicle has learned.

The railroad company, ranked as No. 284 on the Fortune 500 list, currently is based in Norfolk, Va. It opened its current 21-story headquarters in Norfolk in 1988. The headquarters relocation could bring as many as 1,400 jobs to Atlanta.

According to Fortune Magazine, Norfolk Southern had $10.55 billion in revenues in 2017. It has been on the Fortune 500 list for 24 years.

Although the railroad is based in Norfolk, it actually has more employees in Georgia than it does in Virginia, according to the company’s website.

According to people familiar with Norfolk Southern, the railroad has flirted with the idea of moving its headquarters to Atlanta – a city that has become a magnet for Fortune 500 companies – largely because of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

[Street Advocate]

Exciting, although it will be bigger news when NS confirms where they're relocating.

[Martinman]

Yeah. Hopefully the news getting out before they have confirmed the move doesn't cause them to change their plans.

[smArTaLlone]

https://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&ct=clnk&gl=us

Norfolk Southern Corp. is once again emerging as a key driver in a potentially historic deal to redevelop downtown Atlanta’s “Gulch.”

In a presentation before city economic development officials, the railroad giant was said part of negotiations for a more than $100 million sale of Gulch property to Los Angeles-based CIM Group, which is pitching an up-to $5 billion redevelopment of the old downtown rail yard where trains from across the South once converged.

Norfolk Southern is “driving the schedule,” Dickerson said in a meeting with Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm. The railroad company is likely aiming to complete the transaction by the end of September and ahead of third quarter earnings, he said.

[smArTaLlone]

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt-...fs2KcDqEsElKK/

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Monday said she would not push the City Council to vote on her proposal to provide up to $1.75 billion in public financing to help redevelop downtown’s Gulch.

The Gulch is crisscrossed by freight and MARTA rail lines and sits 40 feet below street level, making it a daunting site for potential developers.


But California’s CIM Group has proposed building a $5 billion project over the rail lines and parking lots between the Five Points MARTA station and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

[bigstick]

Originally Posted by smArTaLlone

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt-...fs2KcDqEsElKK/

What an embarrassment to the city, something should have happened to that dirt hole decades ago..The city council will be dead as well as myself before anything happens there.

[smArTaLlone]

Considering that this involves nearly $1.75 billion, I think its a good idea to slow down and carefully discuss this plan.


https://twitter.com/CityofAtlanta/st...81788677431297

[pica]

I could certainly envision a scenario where the state gives CIM several hundred million worth of incentives to build provisions for a future commuter rail station under the development, as that would be a public benefit worthy of significant investment.

I could absolutely get on board with the city contributing $500 million or so in tax incentives of its own to build the elevated platform and new public streets, as that would be a public benefit worthy of significant investment.

But none of that is currently what's proposed. The state and the developer are trying to strongarm Atlanta taxpayers for almost $2 billion for a development with private buildings, private streets, and a private parking lot underneath. They'll fund a new fire/police station... which would mainly serve to protect their private development.

It's nuts to suggest that we should give up almost $2 billion in tax revenue that we'd get if these buildings were built elsewhere. If Amazon wants to come to Atlanta they're getting their own incentives and have building site options all over the city. It's not going to be contingent on this particular real estate developer getting a massive tax break of their own.

[Triptychtwo]

Norfolk Southern would use gulch sale to build new Headquarters in Midtown

The headquarters project is tied to the company’s hopes of selling a large swath of the 40-acre Gulch, the historic former downtown rail-yard where Norfolk Southern’s property dates back to the late 1800s.

[Street Advocate]

Originally Posted by Triptychtwo

Norfolk Southern would use gulch sale to build new Headquarters in Midtown

The plot thickens.

[Historic]

Originally Posted by Street Advocate

The plot thickens.

Interesting! So they're trailing to sell off rights to their active rail running through the Gulch?

So this whole deal wasn't for NS at all, it's for Amazon HQ2 then. NS wants to sell of the land and build in Midtown, and Amazon wants the land/incentives to build HQ2. One is dependent on the other. At least that's how I am interpreting it.

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by Historic

Interesting! So they're trailing to sell off rights to their active rail running through the Gulch?

So this whole deal wasn't for NS at all, it's for Amazon HQ2 then. NS wants to sell of the land and build in Midtown, and Amazon wants the land/incentives to build HQ2. One is dependent on the other. At least that's how I am interpreting it.

I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion RE: Amazon HQ2

The only thing proven to be certain is what KLB and the AJC has already stated, that being Norfolk Southern relocating their HQ to Atlanta is contingent upon the land sale in The Gulch, which is contingent upon the incentive package being approved.

[smArTaLlone]

Originally Posted by Triptychtwo

Norfolk Southern would use gulch sale to build new Headquarters in Midtown

That's exactly what I suspected.

[Atlanta3000]

Originally Posted by Triptychtwo

Norfolk Southern would use gulch sale to build new Headquarters in Midtown

This confirms a "RUMOR" I heard this weekend

Does everyone remember this story from the ABC that came out 1 month before the Amazon RFP?

City’s CRE biz buzzing over giant office prospect
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...-prospect.html

Aug 4, 2017 - Atlanta's commercial real estate business is buzzing over the prospect of a 500000 to 600000 square-foot office project — and the mystery ...

It is no longer a mystery now because my source tells me the prospect referenced in the ABC story above is no other than Norfolk Southern and based on current information from the ABC and AJC it looks like Norfolk Southern is promising to bring an additional 1400 jobs to Atlanta and BUILD a HQ in Midtown as part of the Gulch project. Currently Norfolk Southern has approximately 2000 employees at their office in Midtown (pic below).

1200 Peachtree Street


Norfolk Southern's 1200 Peachtree office is 481K sqft and I believe they are at capacity. If Norfolk Southern does move their HQ to Atlanta, they would need a new building to accommodate approximately 3400+ employees. Additionally, Norfolk Southern would likely sell their Peachtree building to help fund the project.

For those that don't know when an investor and buyer wants to buy a property and/or building, they file/pay for an Open Record Request (ORR) with the City to get all the historical information on the property such as zoning details, liens, fines, taxes...etc. As expected someone has made an ORR for 1200 Peachtree on 9/7/2018 (see link below).
https://aca3.accela.com/ATLANTA_GA/C...howInspection=

Now for the interesting stuff

Where will Norfolk Southern build their new HQ and how big will it be? Again they have approximately 2000 employees in 481K sqft at 1200 Peachtree and they will need another +/- 150K for the additional 1400 employees or approximately 650K sqft. Given Norfolk Southern is in the railroad business, most likely they will be using a real estate developer to construct this new HQ. Can anyone name the project and developer who has a proposal that fits this profile?

Check back shortly and I will give you the answer......

[smArTaLlone]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion RE: Amazon HQ2

The only thing proven to be certain is what KLB and the AJC has already stated, that being Norfolk Southern relocating their HQ to Atlanta is contigent upon the land sale in The Gulch, which is contingent upon the incentive package being approved.

Right. We need to separate the two. The Gulch is a potential site for HQ2 but the incentive deal is with the developer CIM not Amazon. Furthermore, the Gulch deal is not contingent on landing HQ2. CIM started pursuing the Gulch redevelopment prior to HQ2-mania.

[RN330]

Wonder if the Cousins proposal on West Peachtree / 8th would be a fit for NS. Or the Selig proposal on WP / 12th.

[Atlanta3000]

OK baby birds I don't have time to fart around and spoon feed it to you...

1105 West Peachtree

So now we know why Selig got all the permits and demoed all the properties at 1105 West Peachtree and the project has been in a holding pattern. To close this out, I still maintain Norfolk Southern's HQ project is not the reason the Mayor and Governor are grabbing their ankles for CIM Group. The Gulch project is being used as a mask to cover incentives that are being used to attract HQ2. As I have said before, at this point in "most" negotiations it's not longer competitive - it's financial. Hence the reason why we are only seeing Atlanta having discussions on this scale.

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by Atlanta3000

This confirms a "RUMOR" I heard this weekend

Does everyone remember this story from the ABC that came out 1 month before the Amazon RFP?

City’s CRE biz buzzing over giant office prospect
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...-prospect.html


It is no longer a mystery now because my source tells me the prospect referenced in the ABC story above is no other than Norfolk Southern and based on current information from the ABC and AJC it looks like Norfolk Southern is promising to bring an additional 1400 jobs to Atlanta and BUILD a HQ in Midtown as part of the Gulch project. Currently Norfolk Southern has approximately 2000 employees at their office in Midtown (pic below).

1200 Peachtree Street


Norfolk Southern's 1200 Peachtree office is 481K sqft and I believe they are at capacity. If Norfolk Southern does move their HQ to Atlanta, they would need a new building to accommodate approximately 3400+ employees. Additionally, Norfolk Southern would likely sell their Peachtree building to help fund the project.

For those that don't know when an investor and buyer wants to buy a property and/or building, they file/pay for an Open Record Request (ORR) with the City to get all the historical information on the property such as zoning details, liens, fines, taxes...etc. As expected someone has made an ORR for 1200 Peachtree on 9/7/2018 (see link below).
https://aca3.accela.com/ATLANTA_GA/C...howInspection=

Now for the interesting stuff

Where will Norfolk Southern build their new HQ and how big will it be? Again they have approximately 2000 employees in 481K sqft at 1200 Peachtree and they will need another +/- 150K for the additional 1400 employees or approximately 650K sqft. Given Norfolk Southern is in the railroad business, most likely they will be using a real estate developer to construct this new HQ. Can anyone name a the project and developer who has a proposal that fits this profile?

Check back shortly and I will give you the answer......

That project you're referring to was the 30 story tower proposed by Selig Enterprises at 1105 West Peachtree.

It would be a very nice 2-for if it fact happens that way. Solid 8/10.

[Libertarian]

If NS decides to move here, the 1125 location is more likely than 1105.

[Triptychtwo]

Originally Posted by Libertarian

If NS decides to move here, the 1125 location is more likely than 1105.

The timing of 1125 does not make as much sense as the 1105 and it's just a few blocks away, why do you say 1125 is more likely? The 1105 quick movement and then full-stop aligns pretty closely with NS push to get this stuff completed.