Two transformational deals

Welcome back to Georgianomics, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s newsletter reporting on the businesses, people and ideas shaping Georgia.

Savannah Sicurella here, leading this week’s edition.

Before we get started, here’s a news quiz for you: What happened on Oct. 28 in Atlanta history exactly 31 years ago? Scroll to the bottom to see the answer.

What’s coming:

🚗 Audi announces a Georgia facility

🚔 First Liberty leader is sentenced

🍋‍🟩 Georgia entrepreneur launches tequila brand

1. Placemaking 🌳

Mark Toro is a stickler for deadlines.

After his real estate firm acquired an aging State Farm campus in Johns Creek in 2024, he said a reimagined development would open Oct. 29, 2026, at 10 a.m. Restaurants, apartments and retail would spring up in its place, turning a lifeless office park into a destination for the community, anchoring its new downtown.

Two years later, this vision is materializing, down to the minute. The first phase of Medley at Johns Creek is opening Thursday.

Here’s what The Atlanta Journal-Constitution saw during a sneak peek:

• Restaurants, including the Georgia debut of Chattanooga, Tennessee, restaurant Stir, another outpost of Buford Highway staple Northern China Eatery and a bar fashioned around an oak tree preserved from the existing development
• Retail, including Trader Joe’s and High Country Outfitters
• Office space, anchored by pharmaceutical and animal health company Boehringer Ingelheim
• Apartments and, by next year, townhomes.

Medley isn’t Toro’s first rodeo. When he was with North American Properties, Toro led the development of Avalon in Alpharetta and the redo of Colony Square in Midtown. At Medley, he wanted to out-Avalon Avalon.

“This is happening across America,” Toro said. “We’re being offered opportunities to reimagine dead suburban office parks because that real estate product is no longer viable.”

🔍 What other aging office complexes are in need of a transformation? Email us at businessnews@ajc.com.

Not signed up yet? Why wait? Get Georgianomics in your inbox each Wednesday. And keep scrolling for more news.

2. Audi, by the numbers 🚗

Saturday was a busy day for state officials. Audi announced it will build its first U.S. manufacturing facility near Macon, in what is one of the biggest economic development prizes in the state’s history.

The deal was the culmination of nearly two years of courting the German automaker.

The site lies about 5 miles west of I-75, along Ga. 96 on the eastern outskirts of Fort Valley in Peach County.

Here’s the deal by the numbers:

$4.2 billion: Audi’s promised investment

4,500: The number of promised jobs

$63,000: The average annual wages paid to employees

$283 million: The facility’s annual payroll

🔍 READ MORE: Here’s how Georgia leaders recruited Audi’s $4.2B plant.

3. First Liberty sentencing ⚖️

A judge sentenced Brant Frost IV to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud tied to the collapse of First Liberty Building & Loan.

The sentence was delivered Monday in a federal courthouse mere steps from First Liberty’s former offices.

Federal regulators last year accused Frost and First Liberty of operating a $140 million Ponzi scheme that targeted conservative and faith-based investors.

🔍 READ MORE: First Liberty founder Brant Frost IV sentenced to 15 years in prison

4. On the beat 🖊

🌍 Foreign ministers from the G20 will be in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday.

📺 Six years after going dark, Adult Swim has brought back the billboard atop its Williams Street building that overlooks the Downtown Connector. Next time you’re stuck in traffic, just look up.

🎖️The Home Depot Foundation will invest $1 billion in veteran causes by 2032. Since 2011, the nonprofit has invested more than $650 million in veteran causes.

5. Tequila with a twist 🍋‍🟩

Sandy Springs business owner Sue Hrib launched her own tequila brand aimed at women, drawing on her expertise as a founder and CEO of a supply chain management software firm. The name: Biatch Tequila. The vessel: a bottle shaped like a woman’s lips.

Since its launch in mid-2024, Hrib says more than 250,000 bottles of Biatch Tequila have been sold, for more than $3 million in cumulative revenue.

🔍 In this week’s AJC Her+Story, Kelly Yamanouchi spoke with Hrib about her brand and the challenges she’s faced.

6. Word on the street

The AJC’s Amy Wenk went to a confab at Chateau Elan last week held by JPMorgan Chase. There, CEO Jamie Dimon made a subtle dig at U.S. immigration policies.

“The amount of entrepreneurs that you sit around who are also immigrants … that is the beauty of this country,” Dimon told the crowd of small business professionals.

Other countries without such diversity lack the level of business innovation found in the U.S., he said.

Dimon then said, “Unfortunately, we are making mistakes. We’re driving people out of the country.”

While speaking at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, Dimon was critical of President Donald Trump’s immigration polices, which have included mass deportations, offering a rare critique from a corporate leader, according to CNBC.

7. Election Day looms 🗳️

We’re a week away from Election Day — have you early voted? FYI: The AJC has launched a three-part podcast series detailing how Georgia became the epicenter of the fight over election administration, public trust and democracy. It’s called “Politically Georgia: The Final Tally,” and the first two episodes drop Thursday.

👂 Listen up: AJC announces ‘The Final Tally,’ a three-part podcast on election integrity

More top stories

✈️ It’s official: Delta is taking over defunct Spirit Airlines gates at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

⚙️ Meeting demand: Mitsubishi Power Americas Inc. is planning a $490 million expansion at its Savannah-area manufacturing and service center, which produces gas and steam turbines, as well as power generation equipment.

🚄 Transit dilemma: Renovating MARTA’s Five Points Station will take longer and be more expensive than planned.

Moving on and up 🪜

• Atlanta-based real estate services firm TSCG has promoted Susan Ahlheit to chief operating officer and David Huntley to chief financial officer, effective Jan. 1. Current COO Bob Wordes is retiring after 20 years with the firm.
• Balfour Beatty has named John Harris as its president of Southeast buildings. He succeeds Scott Skidelsky, who recently was appointed U.S. president for strategy and growth.
• The Salvation Army Metro Atlanta Area Command has hired Sam Fair as the director of its recently launched Education and Workforce Development Center.

Stat of the week 🍬

$263

That’s how much the average consumer will spend celebrating Halloween this year, according to PwC. That’s a lot of candy, costumes and fake blood.