It may not seem like it at times, but Atlanta is an up-and-coming city. The film industry is starting to shoot big budget movies here (Ant-Man, Furious 7, The Hunger Games); Fortune 500 corporations like General Motors, Baxter, Pulte Group are relocating here; and just last year we built our very own ferris wheel. Yes, it’s a good time to be an Atlantan, but this business increase and expansion has been calculated.
Business is booming for two good reasons, the first being tax incentives. The Georgia General Assembly passed legislation in both 2002 and 2008 to attract the film industry, and taxes for corporations in Georgia are the eighth lowest in the United States, according to the Tax Foundation. You would think that this economic incentive alone would cause corporate relocation, but it’s more than that. Georgia’s corporate tax rate is beat by Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, Utah, Virginia, and Oklahoma, yet only Virginia among these states has more Fortune 500 companies than Georgia, some states not having any. This suggests that economic incentives alone are not enough to bring business to a state -- so what is?
Amanda Rhein is the Senior Director of Transit Oriented Development and Real Estate at MARTA, and she argues that public mass transit is also responsible for the recent influx of corporations into the Atlanta metro area. In her 2015 TEDx Atlanta talk, Rhein pointed to a handful of corporations that said they took Atlanta’s public transit system (MARTA), commute time, and employee satisfaction into consideration when relocating. These corporations include Kaiser Permanate, which is relocating to Midtown; State Farm, which is moving right next to the Dunwoody MARTA Station; Pulte Group, which is moving adjacent to the Buckhead MARTA station; and the list goes on. This trend shows that corporations are starting to take the environment of their corporate branch or headquarters location into account when moving and setting up a base.
Low taxes are a factor, but even states with the highest corporate tax rates see some of the largest numbers of Fortune 500 companies start and move there, simply because they’re perceived as places to do business. MARTA has proposed a plan to expand its railways north and northeast of Atlanta to further reduce traffic, as well as create an urban environment less dependent on cars and emphasized on walking. If past relocations are any indication of business behavior, then Atlanta needs to capitalize on this opportunity by expanding MARTA, and work to make itself a city in-line with the visions of corporations.
This expansion of MARTA and the creation of walking-friendly urban areas would do more than benefit Atlanta by attracting corporations. Almost 75 percent of surveyed metro Atlantans agree that Atlanta needs more public transportation, bike lanes, sidewalks, and walking-friendly environments, according to a survey conducted by Citizens for Progressive Transit (CFPT). By making these ideas a reality, local businesses would become more profitable as local consumption would increase, and real estate would become more desirable, overall boosting Georgia’s economy. At this point, it becomes a cycle. Businesses are interested in being located in an area where its employees can effortlessly get to work, and citizens are interested in the same type of area where business opportunities are available.
All of this suggests that what is considered the American dream might be changing. The urban and suburban sprawl resulting from Levittown-style communities is finally being recognized for its negative impact. Space is being used more efficiently, cars are becoming less and less necessary in cities, and with the addition of functional and widespread public transportation the dependence on cars could be eliminated completely. Perhaps it’s time that cities start to play a role in creating a cleaner, more functional and efficient United States, starting with Atlanta.
