Georgia might be in running for Sears headquarters, reports say

By Rachel Tobin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday it may leave a Chicago suburb with its 6,200 jobs, and media reports put Georgia in the mix as a possible relocation site.

The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times named New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas as other states being considered by the 125-year-old retailer and mail order operation.

While some observers are skeptical Sears, which has been in Illinois since 1887, will leave its home state, others note the company moved from downtown Chicago to a suburb, and should be looking for the best deal.

“That’s called shopping,” said A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress and a former real estate executive with Portman Holdings. “It’s done all the time.”

Robinson's group is involved with planning a major transit hub and office development in downtown Atlanta. He sees the Sears headquarters search as “a wonderful opportunity for Atlanta.”

William McLeod, mayor of Hoffman Estates, Ill., where Sears is located, is taking Sears’ search seriously. Hoffman Estates landed Sears in 1989 with incentives after the company leveraged the possibility of moving to North Carolina to get the deal that took them from downtown Chicago's Sears Tower (now Willis Tower).

State and local incentives that Sears receives will expire in 2012, McLeod said, adding the town and company have been talking for about a year.

Sears merged with Kmart to form Sears Holdings in 2004.

“Since the current Sears incentive package is expiring shortly, it makes a lot of sense for them to explore their options, especially due to the recent flurry of incentive packages granted by Illinois,” said Craig Mendel, assistant vice president at Colliers International, Atlanta, a real estate services firm.

“There is always a chance that we and the other states are being used as a stalking horse, but Georgia has to pursue it.”

Robinson said now is a good time for a major corporation to move to Atlanta. “We’re coming out of a deep real estate recession, and companies may sense that costs are going to rise,” he said. “This may be the last opportunity for a number of years to take advantage of inexpensive real estate in Atlanta.”

Georgia’s low tax rates and the lure of the busiest airport in the world and its international terminal to open next year are reasons Atlanta could be a real contender, he said. “If you fit those three together, it’s a good time to shop Atlanta,” Robinson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.