Metro Atlanta turns to slums for jobs

Slums are popping up all over metro Atlanta.

And right behind those declarations are hundreds of jobs – at least 850 new positions already announced for Union City and Marietta, and another 500 expected this summer in Union City.

“No one should be scared that a state law requires us to put in our resolution that we have slums,” said Brian Binzer, Marietta’s director of development services. “It’s just a word, and it brings jobs.”

At last count, 10 cities and counties in the region declared part of themselves a slum – a necessary step to apply as a state Opportunity Zone. The offending term is part of a redevelopment law that dates back to the 1950s -- when "slum" was part of the lingo.

The designation doesn’t cost cities a cent, but it lets them offer state tax breaks to any businesses in the zone that adds new full-time jobs.

The term drew furor last month, when Sandy Springs decided to apply for the program. Residents near the zone worried about the stigma damaging property values and the reputation as the nation’s ninth-most affluent municipality.

"These terms have received way too much attention in the debate,” said Sandy Springs city councilman Chip Collins. “Once the Opportunity Zone status is reached, no one remembers the reasons for the designation but rather only the positive effects. No one can argue that ‘opportunity,’ is a bad word.”

Indeed, not a single resident or politician said a thing when East Point declared its downtown and hot new commercial area on Camp Creek Parkway as slums last week.

That could be because many in the city know East Point has twice lost out in luring new employers to nearby Union City.

"We were finalists because we have a lot going for us," said Jennifer Fine, East Point's economic development director. "What we need are the incentives that come with Opportunity Zones to live up to our potential."

Biotech firm Dendreon is investing $70 million in Union City's potential. The firm is building a 160,000-square foot facility at Majestic Airport Center off I-85 to make a new cancer drug in that south Fulton County city. With it will come 500 new jobs.

A separate company is building a manufacturing center next to Dendreon. An announcement isn’t expected until summer, but that site should create another 500 jobs, said Union City senior planner Shayla Harris.

“It’s like double-dutch. Everyone is waiting to see who is going to jump in first,” Harris said. “And once Dendreon and its friendly neighbors and cousins are in, we’re hoping that will trigger the next development.”

The Department of Community Affairs created the program to give businesses a reason to invest the money to refurbish older buildings or to settle in areas that need the boost.

Once at least two jobs are created for a year, businesses can get $3,500 in employee tax credits.

The impact can be small and symbolic. Union City’s first jobs created, for instance, were four full-time gigs at a Zaxby’s in the run-down old Shannon Mall area. But officials admit the goal is to lure investment while adding as many big employers as possible.

Marietta managed to do both when TASQ Technology announced in March that it would renovate a former printing center on Canton Road for its new headquarters.

The First Data subsidiary will relocate 145 jobs to the center, where workers program point-of-sale gear, and will add 350 new positions during the next year.

“These are jobs that might not have come to Georgia without the incentive,” said Brian Williamson, DCA’s assistant commissioner for community development. “This program is an opportunity for businesses to come and also locate in an area that needs the redevelopment.”

In other words, the jobs will go to "slums" because that’s where they are needed most.

And slums are in the eye of the beholder. Homes worth $300,000 and up to $1 million surround the new “slum” in Sandy Springs.

The Opportunity Zone in Norcross, approved last fall, runs on Buford Highway between Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Langford Road. The aging office parks and strip malls there sit just blocks from the city's renovated and popular historic downtown.

That city is now readying a marketing plan, on how to best draw "green" and technology jobs that better fit its new image, said economic development manager Vernae Martin.

"The focus on improving these older areas is more prominent than any idea that this area is a slum," Martin said.

Camp Creek Parkway is home to a shiny new marketplace, replete with fountains and eateries. But the mere proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport creates enough noise to officially qualify as blighted.

And Union City included more than 6 miles of South Fulton Parkway as its slum, all because there is no development in the swath the city annexed in 2006.

“This is a program where you are able to obtain jobs through blight,” Harris said. “When our residents hear about us bringing jobs and economic advancement, that’s what is exciting.”

From slums to job centers

Cities and counties wanting to apply for Georgia’s Opportunity Zone program must follow several steps:

1.Locate a Census block in the community with at least 15 percent poverty.

2.That block and the neighboring blocks can be assembled into a redevelopment area, by declaring the area a slum that has pervasive poverty, is underdeveloped and is subject to blight and general distress.

3.File an application with the state Department of Community Affairs to make the redevelopment area an Opportunity Zone. For an application go to: http://www.dca.state.ga.us/economic/DevelopmentTools/programs/opportunityZones.asp

4.Once an Opportunity Zone, businesses that create at least two jobs are eligible for up to $3,500 in state tax credits for each job. The tax credits last for five years.

Where are the Opportunity Zones?

DCA has approved 26 Opportunity Zones across the state. Seven are in the metro Atlanta region:

• Acworth
• Cherokee County
• Forsyth County
• Gwinnett County
• Marietta
• Norcross
• Union City

Three regional cities have begun the application process for Opportunity Zones this year: