In Midtown, Norfolk Southern’s $575M HQ is officially under construction

Railroad giant Norfolk Southern’s $575 million Midtown headquarters officially broke ground Tuesday, as emphasized on site by some of Georgia’s most powerful names.

Scoring the Fortune 500 company from northern Virginia was a considerable win for the state and the city, stressed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

“This relocation is not only a testament to Atlanta’s thriving, inclusive business community and talented workforce; it exemplifies the power of public-private sector teamwork in our city,” said Bottoms, according to a press release.

“It’s a great day in Georgia when a Fortune 500 company returns home to its Atlanta roots and breaks ground on a beautiful new headquarters building in Midtown,” said Kemp, nodding to previous incarnations of the NS brand, such as the Southern Railway Company.

Norfolk Southern’s relocation means 850 new jobs—average salary: $105,000—are bound for Atlanta, and in a place with a solid recruiting pool, Tech Square.

The new headquarters campus will be rising on a 3.4-acre parcel bordered by Midtown’s Ponce de Leon Avenue and 3rd Street. Fresh renderings lend a clearer perspective on what’s planned and how the project would relate to the street.

For the railroad company, the finished product would be a glassy, two-tower building spanning some 750,000 square feet. At least one of the towers would stand 22 stories.

Taking up most of Cousins Properties’s 1 million-square-foot development on the site, the HQ is expected to feature 13,000 square feet of retail, as well as a “food hall-style dining facility,” sprawling green spaces on rooftops and at street-level, and a 24/7 fitness center, officials have said.

Cousins will be overseeing construction of the new HQ, which officials say is slated to open its doors in mid-2021.