The Metro Atlanta Chamber plans to announce its new headquarters location early next year, and chamber CEO Hala Moddelmog said the business coalition will stay downtown.
The chamber has been in talks to sell its building to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority for about a year. The authority wants to expand Centennial Olympic Park by razing the building and turning the land into additional event space. The plan was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last December.
The plan got a boost last month when the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation committed $10 million to the park’s capital campaign.
But the plan also raises the question of where the Chamber will land.
“We are committed to staying downtown,” Moddelmog said in a brief interview before the chamber’s annual meeting this week. “We are still in the process of figuring out (where we are going). It will be soon.”
The current chamber building holds a prominent corner at Andrew Young International Boulevard and Marietta Street. It has a rooftop events space that’s been a revenue generator through special functions. But the building also has limited parking for chamber officials and visiting dignitaries.
The building is well-known to visitors of the park and also has hosted numerous television news shoots. It’s doubtful leased space within an office tower could provide the organization with as much visibility.
The chamber is said to have eyed numerous spots, including Allen Plaza, the 191 Peachtree building, SunTrust Plaza, the Georgia-Pacific Center, 100 Peachtree (known as the Equitable building) and several historic structures around downtown.
A brief flirtation with office space in Midtown quickly passed, people familiar with the process said.
Larry Gellerstedt, CEO of Cousins Properties, the owner of 191 Peachtree and the 2015 chairman of the chamber board, has recused himself from any real estate discussions, people familiar with the matter said.
A Peachtree Street address, downtown’s best known thoroughfare, might be most attractive to the group and its high-powered board.
The 191 Peachtree building and SunTrust Plaza are two of the buildings considered that stand on downtown’s main drag and already include some of the city’s better known companies and chamber members.
“Downtown needs us more than Midtown or Buckhead,” Moddelmog said. “It’s where we need to be.”
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