myajc.com: See earlier stories and view more photos and renderings of the State Farm campus at our premium website for subscribers.
Park Center
Developer KDC is building Park Center, the national operations center for State Farm in Dunwoody. The project’s first new office tower is expected to open in late 2016. KDC and State Farm said the project will include 2.2 million square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space and a 175-room hotel.
Source: KDC and State Farm.
State Farm showed off the look of its future Dunwoody campus Thursday in a ceremonial ground breaking for one of the region’s largest construction projects since the Great Recession and one of its biggest office complexes ever.
Dallas-based developer KDC plans 2.2 million square feet of offices at the new national operations center to be called Park Center. The project will rival in size some of the larger centers including the Concourse business park, home to the prominent King and Queen buildings.
The first new building in the 17-acre campus will tie directly into the MARTA station adjacent to Perimeter Mall and open in late 2016. The 585,000-square-foot tower – 13 stories of office space and a seven level parking deck – will be joined in its first phase by restaurants, retail space and a 175-room hotel. Future phases of more office and retail space will follow over several years.
The campus is similar to corporate centers State Farm is creating near Dallas and Phoenix. The company has not specified the operations to be based at its metro Atlanta hub, but the firm hired 2,600 workers last year in several categories, including customer-service, call-center, claims, information technology, underwriting and sales-based support.
Gov. Nathan Deal said the project will provide “the kind of good paying jobs that our citizens are looking for.”
Illinois-based State Farm last year started the consolidation in rented space in Dunwoody. It’s coincided with resurgence in the local office market, which took a beating during the aftermath of the recession when companies cut back or moved elsewhere.
State Farm and other major corporations, including AirWatch and Cox Enterprises, parent company of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have grown their footprint in the area over the past few years.
State Farm has about 5,500 employees in metro Atlanta now, with plans to grow to 8,000 in the coming years. Most of those jobs will likely be in Dunwoody.
The first tower is planned for a four-acre parcel that has been home to a Chequers seafood restaurant and a former Fuddruckers. Chequers recently moved to east Cobb County.
A site plan also shows a ring of new development around an existing 10-story tower known as Hammond Exchange. KDC officials had previously said that tower might be replaced.
The State Farm complex promises to bring more traffic to the already congested Perimeter Center area. Officials said the link to MARTA will help mitigate the traffic strain, and company executives have said they many foresee workers living nearby.
Deal, on hand to turn over dirt trucked into a parking lot under MARTA tracks for the ceremony, said accelerating the planned work on the I-285/Ga. 400 interchange will also help an area prone to gridlock.
The State Transportation Board on Thursday voted to free up $130 million in bonds and allow for $81.5 million in additional funds to be used for the nearly $1 billion interchange overhaul. The move allows the project to potentially open by 2019, state officials said.
About the Author
