Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is pressing Microsoft Corp. for clarity about the future of a parcel of city land that was supposed to become a major corporate campus for the tech giant.
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Microsoft announced in 2021 that it would build a new complex on a 90-acre (36-hectare) site in Atlanta’s Grove Park neighborhood, creating as many as 15,000 jobs in the city.
But the project came to a standstill last year before officially breaking ground, when the company said it was re-evaluating its global real estate portfolio post-pandemic.
Dickens said he’s reaching out to Microsoft in the next week to get an update on the project and whether it’s still viable. If not, Dickens said he’s ready to try to take back the land for the city or partner with a developer.
“We really want them to develop their property or offer it back to us so we can develop it,” Dickens said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Atlanta office. “Even if you don’t know what you want to do, just let us know what you know you won’t be able to do.”
Microsoft declined to comment. The company has previously said the Grove Park property isn’t for sale and they’ll re-engage in planning efforts when the time is right.
The company has already opened a new office in the Atlantic Yards district in 2022, housing 2,000 employees. That office, along with the Grove Park campus about five miles away and three new data centers, were part of Microsoft’s vision to make the Atlanta region one of its largest hubs outside its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, which provides about 50,000 jobs. The company employs 220,000 people globally.
The uncertainty over Microsoft’s expansion reflects a broader trend of technology and other companies scaling back their office space and workforces in the wake of the pandemic, which has accelerated the move to remote and hybrid work.
The trend is having implications for major US cities, including Atlanta, which is facing one of…
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