March 29, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2010
Contact: Sonya Moste, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Phone: 404.614.8281
E-mail: smoste@atlantada.com
ADA and Metro Atlanta Chamber Travel to Boston,
Market Atlanta to Employers
This week, the Atlanta Development Authority (ADA) and the Metro Atlanta Chamber are leaving on their third annual business development trip to Boston. The purpose of the trip is to develop a pipeline of interest and establish new relations while at the same time cultivating connections made last year. ADA will host an event in Boston for site-location consultants – professionals ranging from real estate brokers to developers and financial consultants – who advise companies on their location decisions. Over the course of the three-day trip, ADA and the Chamber will meet with 10 companies and/or consultants and hope to come away with follow-up trips in Atlanta.
Last year the focus of the trip was exclusively on the life science industry. This year, ADA is broadening its scope to include the electronics industry and corporate headquarters. Discussions will center on plans and needs for corporate headquarters, R&D facilities, distribution and retail locations.
In less than fours years of targeting Boston employers, Atlanta has landed two relocation projects: Legal Sea Foods and AiHeart Medical Technologies. Legal Sea Foods, headquartered in Boston, opened its first Atlanta location adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park in 2008, after actively having been recruited by ADA in 2007. Additional locations in Atlanta could ultimately lead to a distribution center, which is a targeted industry for job growth.
After last year’s trip, one life science company, AiHeart Medical Technologies, moved to Atlanta and located in the Centergy Building at Georgia Tech. AiHeart develops a cardiac fiber-optic scope that goes into the artery to detect and repair blocked arteries. St. Joseph’s Translational Research Institute, a local company, was instrumental in helping to attract AiHeart Medical Technologies to Atlanta.
“We’ve had results from these trips,” says Gregg Simon, manager of business engagement for ADA. “The AiHeart project shows the strength of our growing life science cluster. They came because of the cardiac research already being done in Atlanta,” Simon says.
“Business development is a marathon, not a sprint,” says Grady Fitzpatrick, senior business development manager with the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “It’s about courting these relationships over a long period of time.”
Boston is a worldwide leader in high-tech businesses focusing on defense, life science, electronics, information technology and financial services. ADA believes Atlanta would be an attractive location for these industries as well. Atlanta’s cost of doing businesses is significantly less than in other cities, and Atlanta offers important amenities such as a base of world-class educational institutions and superior access to the world via Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s largest. Atlanta has attracted several Fortune 1000 companies over the past decade, such as NCR, First Data and Newell Rubbermaid. While Boston’s population is stagnant, Atlanta is a dynamic, diverse city with a growing population. The latest census shows Atlanta as the 9th largest metro in the U.S.; Boston is no. 10.
ABOUT ATLANTA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
The Atlanta Development Authority is the official economic development agency for the city of Atlanta. ADA represents intown Atlanta, which has a population of 530,000 and growing. ADA is a research-based economic development organization, focused on residential, business and investment growth in the city. In 2010, ADA will invite employers to Atlanta by leading or participating in business development trips to Boston, Chicago, Israel, Amsterdam and India. Visit www.atlantada.com.
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