Invest Atlanta approves incentives for Tech Square project

The board of Atlanta’s development arm approved a $15 million incentive package Thursday for the second phase of Georgia Tech’s Technology Square.

Portman Holdings is the developer and Tech is the anchor tenant of the project, which will total about 1 million square feet of office, retail and data center space. The development will be part research center, next-generation computing hub and office tower.

The goal is to pull in private investment and help commercialize new technologies created by both Tech and companies that would locate on site.

Invest Atlanta executive Eloisa Klementich called the incentives package a “strategic move to help support the South’s first innovation neighborhood.” She said the project will compete with other East Coast innovation districts such as The Bridge on Roosevelt Island in New York.

The project, which is formally known as the High Performance Computing Center, is a joint venture of Portman Holdings and Tech. Tech will be the anchor tenant, taking up about half of the planned office space, but private companies and research partners are being wooed for the more than $350 million development.

The 25-story project is estimated to create 2,100 construction jobs, hold 2,400 workers on site and result in an estimated economic impact of $813.8 million, according to Invest Atlanta. It is expected to open in 2018, and brings property once under control of the philanthropic arm of the university onto the tax rolls.

The estimated property tax savings for the project extends over 15 years, Invest Atlanta documents said, and tax payments from the owner will total $17 million in that time.

Read more about the project later today at www.MyAJC.com or in the Friday print edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.