Credit reporting and financial technology company Equifax plans to expand in Midtown Atlanta where it will add or relocate 650 jobs – about 150 of them new.
The announcement continues a stream of announced moves by major tech firms to shift workers into the city. They include NCR, which is building a new headquarters near Technology Square, and payment processor Worldpay US.
Equifax, based on Peachtree Street in Midtown, said it will move workers from Alpharetta and Sandy Springs to One Atlantic Center near the Woodruff Arts Center. The company has signed a lease to take four floors in the tower, one of the city’s tallest, and the space will accommodate not only those workers but 600 to 700 more employees the company expects to hire in the next five to 10 years, company spokeswoman Marisa Salcines said.
The company expects to relocate workers in phases next year.
Jobs to be moved include information technology, data analytics, finance and accounting, Salcines said. The move was based primarily on a desire to attract and retain top tech talent, she said, and employees also were polled based on their commutes and other factors.
“Being in Midtown is one of those attractive pieces to our future workforce,” she said.
Equifax has been shifting beyond its traditional credit reporting business into data analytics, identity verification, wealth and income data and other services.
Mayor Kasim Reed’s office announced the Midtown move Thursday morning, saying the expansion will amount to a $17 million investment in the city, with a projected economic impact of more than $75 million.
Andy Bodea, Equifax’s Chief Global Operations Officer, said the company scouted a number of locations but picked Midtown in part for “its terrific access to a prominent engineering school and a growing reputation for innovation and technology hubs that are a magnet for great talent.”
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