By now we’ve all heard the buzz about MARTA’s expansion of services due North. What does this mean for the North Fulton corporate community? Will this attract millennials? And if yes, how long is this going to take?
As someone who listens to corporate commentary on the GA 400 real estate corridor, I can tell you that the already diverse North Fulton corporate community has experienced a number of changes in the last five to ten years, leaning heavily into technology thanks to the area’s fantastic fiber optic connectivity (and 900 technology companies in the corridor). This surge in all things technology also appeals to younger employees; we’ll refer to them as millennials. These 22-32-year-old professionals in general reside inside the I-285 perimeter, in areas like Buckhead, Brookhaven and Morningside. Adding an extension of MARTA up GA 400 would help retain (and in some cases, increase) North Fulton’s ability to attract millennial and non-millennial employees, and it would greatly expand the region’s economic base.
The expansion of MARTA rail services north of GA 400 would also benefit the North Fulton corporate community as a whole, preventing the migration of large corporate users such as State Farm. Moreover, the expansion would ease the traffic burden on GA 400 — an added bonus to all of us.
There are a few drawbacks to this proposed extension of services; the biggest being the time implementation. The MARTA discussion, which started before the Great Recession, was then set to be completed by 2025. That timeline has not changed. How many of us can wait another 10-plus years for this? It’s an interesting proposition that I support wholeheartedly, but the question is: how different will the region’s transportation needs be in 2025? I welcome your feedback on this important topic.