A fast-growing logistics company has become the first anchor tenant to move into one of metro Atlanta’s largest mixed-use office projects.
Transportation Insight and its subsidiary Nolan Transportation Group on Wednesday celebrated the opening of its new corporate headquarters at Campus 244, a 1.3 million-square-foot development in Dunwoody that ranks among the region’s most unique architectural endeavors. The bottom three floors were the longtime home of poultry company Gold Kist; the Campus 244 revamping included renovating that space while adding two new floors atop the aging structure.
Long considered an eyesore, the new headquarters will add to metro Atlanta’s status as a logistics hub while bustling with about 500 workers, Transportation Insight CEO Ken Beyer said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Before the refresh, the building was better known as the cold backdrop in Netflix shows, including “Ozarks.”
“‘Ozarks,’ the TV show, filmed in this building when it looked like a Soviet bunker,” Beyer said. “It represents us and the hard work that we’ve put into this business. We’ve been through some hard times, but look at this beautiful building. This represents our comeback.”
Credit: J. Scott Trubey/STAFF
Credit: J. Scott Trubey/STAFF
It might also add to the surrounding area’s comeback as one of Atlanta’s premiere office clusters.
Central Perimeter, which includes Dunwoody and Sandy Springs along the Ga. 400 corridor, is the region’s largest corporate submarket, with more than 24 million square feet of office space, according to real estate services firm CBRE. While boasting several Fortune 500 headquarters, it also carries one of metro Atlanta’s highest vacancy rates due to the changing workplace landscape ushered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transportation Insight, which was founded in 1999, announced two years ago it would lease two floors at Campus 244, totaling 174,400 square feet and ranking as one of that year’s largest lease signings. Office lease activity had slowed to a crawl since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, but that is beginning to change. About half a dozen leases with more than 100,000 square feet have been signed so far this year, including Newell Brands in Sandy Springs.
Campus 244 is a joint development by Georgetown Company and RocaPoint Partners that is adding a swatch of new office space to the market. Insight Global, a staffing agency with a headquarters in Dunwoody’s Twelve24 office tower, will occupy 134,000 square feet in the converted Gold Kist portion of the building.
Insight Global is expected to move in later this year, said RocaPoint Principal Patrick Leonard, bringing the building’s occupancy to about 85%. A CT Cantina & Taqueria location and hotel on the campus are also slated to open this fall, with Leonard targeting October.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
He said Campus 244 combines several trendy, albeit complex, construction trends and will be hard to replicate. Few buildings in metro Atlanta are built atop converted former spaces, and the new construction incorporates timber framing, which is seen as more environmentally friendly than steel-and-concrete construction.
Gov. Brian Kemp, who spoke during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, said that Transportation Insight will add to metro Atlanta’s status as one of the country’s premier logistics hubs. Georgia boasts the world’s busiest airport, multiple coastal ports and several Fortune 500 companies across the shipping and trucking industries.
Beyer said his company has room to more than double its Atlanta-based workforce at the new headquarters.
“This office was designed to hold 1,200 people, so we have lots of space to grow,” he said. “And we intend to fill it with the best and brightest professionals in the country and attract them here to Atlanta to this office.”
