City, State Cheer Norfolk Southern Groundbreaking; Atlanta Airport Takeover Idea Still An Issue
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp were among the attendees at Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony for Norfolk Southern Railway’s new headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. The deal was a triumph of city-state collaboration. However, another issue, a proposed state takeover of the Atlanta airport, could damage that partnership.
Emma Hurt / WABE
Norfolk Southern Railway broke ground Tuesday afternoon on its new headquarters in Midtown Atlanta.
The deal was a triumph of city-state collaboration and will mean 850 new jobs and a new building that will cost about $600 million. It’s also the 17th Fortune 500 company to be headquartered in Georgia.
But the event drew attention to another issue bubbling under the surface of the city-state relationship right now: the airport takeover idea.
Gov. Brian Kemp talked up the importance of the relationship in his remarks.
“The mayor and I were just talking about really the great state of things that we came into when she came into office, as well as myself, and we are committed to continuing to build on that,” he said in reference to the strong relationship former Gov. Nathan Deal and former Mayor Kasim Reed developed.
But Kemp has stayed quiet on an issue that might seriously damage that partnership: a proposal in the Georgia Legislature for a state authority to take control of the city’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, on the other hand, has been clear on her stance, calling it “theft.”
“This is the relationship we hope to continue to have with the state,” she said about the Norfolk Southern deal. “And what I’ve said previously is that this conversation surrounding the airport is not helpful for this relationship. This [the deal] is what success looks like. It was great to join the governor today, and I trust we will be able to continue in the spirit of cooperation for a very long time.”
Bottoms said she hopes the takeover idea is dead but is waiting to see the end of the legislative session. State lawmakers have until midnight April 2 to wrap up any final bills for the year.
Last week, the takeover idea got new legs when it was added into a different bill, originally offering a jet fuel tax break to airlines. That bill is currently in the Senate Rules Committee and could still make it to the Senate floor for a vote.
Norfolk Southern Chief Executive Jim Squires was asked about the takeover idea and said he had no comment on the concept or about whether the city runs it well. But he said “as a member of the business community, we feel lucky to be in close proximity to one of the world’s great airports.”
Squires also addressed why the company decided to move more than 800 employees to Atlanta.
“Atlanta is a world-class transportation hub. And as it so happens, through our predecessors, our roots in Atlanta are deep and go all the way back to the 1840s.”
Squires said more than 300 dispatchers had already been moved to the company’s existing Atlanta office, another wave of employees will move this summer, and the rest will move when the headquarters building opens, around summer 2021.
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