Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 2: Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3: Carol Masser, when you think of Atlanta and business, what
Speaker 3: comes to mind?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 2: Rep Pulley, Okay, that's the right answer.
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, Well, maybe.
Speaker 2: I'd set you up for that one lot of things.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's been a lot happening, and that's it.
Speaker 3: There has Okay, So if you think about the mainstays right,
Speaker 3: Coca Cola, yes, Delta Airlines at and t Emory Ups.
Speaker 3: They are all among the largest employers in the area
Speaker 3: and by population is actually the sixth largest market in
Speaker 3: the US. Our next guest charged with attracting businesses to Atlanta,
Speaker 3: keeping them there, and working with policymakers to make the
Speaker 3: climate attractive to capital. Katie Kirkpatrick is President CEO of
Speaker 3: the Metro Atlanta Chamber. It represents businesses, colleges, and universities
Speaker 3: not profits too, across the Greater Atlanta area. She joins
Speaker 3: us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. Also here,
Speaker 3: Brett Pully. Yes, the man we think of when we
Speaker 3: think of business in Atlanta. He's Atlanta bio chief for
Speaker 3: Bloomberg News. We love it when he comes to New
Speaker 3: York and can join us here in the studio. Welcome
Speaker 3: to both of you, Katie. You compete with other major
Speaker 3: metropolitan areas to attract and retain businesses. Mercedes, benz, Rivian,
Speaker 3: Duracell are among the recent wins for you and your team.
Speaker 3: Why is your area the best to do business?
Speaker 5: In your view, that's a pretty simple equation. We have
Speaker 5: the world's largest than most efficient airport mean efficient.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, I've walked through that airport before.
Speaker 2: Efficient did not feel efficient?
Speaker 3: Sorry, go ahead, we can talk.
Speaker 1: About Jay offline, okay, okay.
Speaker 5: But the airport is a really important asset because if
Speaker 5: you're in business and you're either working in the United
Speaker 5: States or internationally, you can get anywhere with a direct
Speaker 5: flight and that's a big selling point. In fact, you
Speaker 5: can get to eighty percent of the United States within
Speaker 5: a two hour direct flight from Atlanta, so that's pretty
Speaker 5: good for business development. And then if you're international, we
Speaker 5: have direct flights all over the world. Second piece is
Speaker 5: we have an incredibly robust university system, higher education system.
Speaker 5: A lot of people don't know that we have more
Speaker 5: than sixty colleges and universities within the twenty nine county
Speaker 5: metro Atlanta area that does not include University of Georgia,
Speaker 5: believe it or not, and that means we have three
Speaker 5: hundred thousand full time equivalent students. So we're diverse for
Speaker 5: talent and opportunity. So that's another piece. And then of
Speaker 5: course we have deep, deep bones around supply chain and logistics.
Speaker 5: And so we were initially called Terminus before we became Atlanta,
Speaker 5: and that's because that's where the railroads all came in,
Speaker 5: It's where our highways come in. So supply chain and
Speaker 5: logistics is really the bread and butter of our economy.
Speaker 5: You mentioned Delta, you mentioned GPS, You didn't mention the
Speaker 5: home depot, which is all and I say that because
Speaker 5: if we think about moving products, right, the home depot
Speaker 5: is moving product every day as well as all these
Speaker 5: others in Delta of course is moving people. So those
Speaker 5: are some of the assets that we talk about and
Speaker 5: seem to be compelling for companies when they're thinking about Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Brett, I want you to come in.
Speaker 2: You covered Atlanta, You've covered.
Speaker 1: Actually business news for a long time and under kind
Speaker 1: of the cross between money, technology, politics, economy. But when
Speaker 1: you look at Atlanta, what do we need to understand
Speaker 1: about Atlanta? And I know you caught up with Katie earlier,
Speaker 1: but give us a quick premer if you will, on
Speaker 1: what's going on in Atlanta.
Speaker 6: Well, I do think Katie has certainly hit on some
Speaker 6: key things, and a couple of them that really resonate.
Speaker 6: You know. One is the fact that it is a
Speaker 6: transportation hub and long has been and she said it
Speaker 6: was known as Terminus, which and the airport, as you mentioned, Tim, Look,
Speaker 6: everyone knows that airport, right and it is amazing and
Speaker 6: one of the wonderful things about being there I've been
Speaker 6: there five years now is I can go just about
Speaker 6: anywhere in the world NonStop, and that's nice, and I
Speaker 6: get there very fast, but you do have to cover
Speaker 6: some distance there first steps in. You know, the airport
Speaker 6: has been in the news in recent days as it
Speaker 6: relates to a lot of the stuff we're talking about,
Speaker 6: and Katie and I talked about this earlier today. The
Speaker 6: fact that the mayor now is given Atlanta's history and
Speaker 6: even the airport's history, a lot of people don't know
Speaker 6: that airport was really expanded and developed very much with
Speaker 6: what is referred to as DEI today, but certainly with
Speaker 6: that as its foundation, and that's been something that's been
Speaker 6: really sort of pivotal in creating this sort of unique
Speaker 6: class of upwardly mobile, diverse entrepreneurs that you know who
Speaker 6: are in Atlanta. Well, the mayor in recent days refused
Speaker 6: to change those initiatives around the airport, and as a result,
Speaker 6: the city lost so I think thirty seven and a
Speaker 6: half million dollars so far in federal funding. We've seen
Speaker 6: the same thing in the news today in New York,
Speaker 6: very similar, much larger amount, right again around infrastructure and
Speaker 6: again around DEI.
Speaker 2: So it's it's really interesting.
Speaker 6: And it's it's something that you know, I'd love to
Speaker 6: hear Katie talk about, how does the city a place
Speaker 6: like Atlanta again, which is the cradle of the civil
Speaker 6: rights movement, right and many of the things that we
Speaker 6: now know today is DEI, how do you balance that,
Speaker 6: How does a business community balance that fact.
Speaker 2: That reality, that historical past.
Speaker 6: With the.
Speaker 2: Demands from the White House today.
Speaker 5: That's pretty simple. You acknowledge what your past is and
Speaker 5: we because we are the cradle of the civil rights movement.
Speaker 5: Our DNA is steeped in having a diverse workforce, a
Speaker 5: diverse community, and the mayor doesn't shay away from that,
Speaker 5: and I think if he had, it would have been
Speaker 5: inauthentic to who we are as a community.
Speaker 4: And so from a.
Speaker 5: Corporate perspective, corporations are going to hire the talent where
Speaker 5: they find it, and they're going to look for quality,
Speaker 5: and that is one of the biggest strengths that we
Speaker 5: have in Metro Atlanta right now, is a diverse, well
Speaker 5: educated population that can fill the jobs that we are creating.
Speaker 5: So while the mayor may have made that decision, I
Speaker 5: think it's indicative of the DNA of who we are
Speaker 5: as a region, and we're not going to shy away
Speaker 5: from that authentic piece of our history.
Speaker 4: If we don't, I think we don't look true to ourselves.
Speaker 1: I am curious, though, Katie, because I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that we talk so much as a result
Speaker 1: of this administration is the fear that's out there, whether
Speaker 1: it's among politicians certainly on the other side of the
Speaker 1: political aisle here here, or whether it's in the corporate community.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be a target. Nobody wants to be
Speaker 1: in a social media tweet. And here we are with
Speaker 1: the government shutdown. You've got the White House halting eighteen
Speaker 1: billion dollars in New York infrastructure funding due to concerns
Speaker 1: over diversity and inclusion practices. Things are being politicized. How
Speaker 1: do you make sure that the city's DII programs aren't
Speaker 1: causing problem or undue notice by the White House are
Speaker 1: causing you guys to lose federal dollars.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think what's important is the ethos that we have
Speaker 5: in Atlanta, which is really the corporate, political, and civic
Speaker 5: all work together. And so people come and go in local, state,
Speaker 5: and federal politics. What doesn't change is who we are
Speaker 5: as a community. And so from a corporation standpoint is
Speaker 5: they're going to continue to do with their customers, with
Speaker 5: their employees, what their shareholders ask for them to do.
Speaker 4: Change comes and go.
Speaker 5: But if they can stick to what their strategy is
Speaker 5: and they can stick to who their purpose and what
Speaker 5: their purpose is, I think that's how you move through
Speaker 5: this moment. And that is what I'm hearing from our
Speaker 5: CEOs is We're just going to keep executing on our
Speaker 5: strategic plan. We're going to do what's best for who
Speaker 5: we serve, and that in the end is going to
Speaker 5: be good for us as a company and ultimately as
Speaker 5: a community.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting.
Speaker 6: You know, Katie's not just whistling Dixie when she talks
Speaker 6: about the corporate and the community partnership. I mean, I
Speaker 6: have to tell you I have been really impressed by
Speaker 6: the level of civic engagement, right, And it goes again
Speaker 6: to this point. I mean, anecdotes abound about the extent
Speaker 6: of which Coca Cola worked with Martin Luther King and
Speaker 6: the civil rights movement, right. And this wasn't like everyone
Speaker 6: was necessarily jumping and willing to do it. But I
Speaker 6: think that the city and the business leaders recognized that
Speaker 6: it was a business imperative, right if they were going
Speaker 6: to be successful as business people, probably the same thing
Speaker 6: we're facing as a country.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: One thing.
Speaker 6: The other thing I'll mentioned really quick is transportation, which
Speaker 6: which Katie mentioned as well.
Speaker 2: It's a big, big deal.
Speaker 6: And you know, and I'm not talking about the transportation
Speaker 6: hub now. I'm talking about transportation around this fast growing,
Speaker 6: really rapidly spreading city.
Speaker 2: And I mentioned that.
Speaker 6: On my way to the airport yesterday, I saw an
Speaker 6: accident wasn't the accident that held up traffic.
Speaker 2: It was the driverless waymow that held up the traffic.
Speaker 1: I love driverless because you figure out what to do
Speaker 1: because the accident was there.
Speaker 2: But I'd like to still love them.
Speaker 6: Maybe that's a solution for Atlanta, But what do you
Speaker 6: do about marta the public transportation system and making all
Speaker 6: of that work better.
Speaker 5: So we're one of eleven cities that have a heavy
Speaker 5: rails system, and that is always an asset for us
Speaker 5: when we're thinking about growth. Right, what a better way
Speaker 5: to talk about You can land at the Atlanta Airport
Speaker 5: and you can be in downtown or midtown within about
Speaker 5: fifteen minutes straight shot for two dollars and fifty cents.
Speaker 4: That is an easy selling point.
Speaker 5: Now that system has to work for everybody, and that
Speaker 5: is the opportunity that we have is creating a system
Speaker 5: that has better headways, has a better customer experience, and
Speaker 5: perhaps also modernize it itself. It's stations in it's trains,
Speaker 5: and that's the direction it's going. But the business community cares,
Speaker 5: and so we are actively engaged with our transit system
Speaker 5: very different than the system that is here, and in
Speaker 5: terms of its construction and governance. So we're doing what
Speaker 5: we can to make sure that they are delivering all
Speaker 5: the promises. I think the point, Brett, that you were
Speaker 5: making about transportation. I said this to you earlier. It's
Speaker 5: a success jam that we experience. Tell me one urban
Speaker 5: city where you have been, where there has been growth
Speaker 5: and no traffic. It really is a symptom of our success.
Speaker 5: And I know that's hard if you're sitting at it,
Speaker 5: or you're.
Speaker 4: Stuck behind a way mow.
Speaker 5: That gets, you know, disoriented, But at the end of
Speaker 5: the day, it tells me that we must be doing
Speaker 5: something right.
Speaker 6: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Here in New York.
Speaker 1: We've been successful for a long time, and the traffic's
Speaker 1: been here for a long time.
Speaker 2: I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, so right, So I.
Speaker 4: Mean it's it's I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 5: And if we didn't have that success, we wouldn't have those.
Speaker 4: Growth nodes that we see around our region.
Speaker 5: That's really what has happened is we moved from one
Speaker 5: central business district to a second one to about eight
Speaker 5: now and they're all over the region. And that allows
Speaker 5: you to live, work, and play close to one central location.
Speaker 3: So let's talk about live, work, and play, because the
Speaker 3: other thing that comes up with economic development and attracting
Speaker 3: and retaining businesses, employees, and finding places for employees to
Speaker 3: be able to live affordably while working where they want
Speaker 3: to work. In an area that is growing, such as Atlanta,
Speaker 3: how do you make sure that you're working with different
Speaker 3: constituencies to make sure that housing is abundant for these
Speaker 3: people you want to attract.
Speaker 4: That's a national problem. We aren't alone, and.
Speaker 3: It's a national problem, but it's it's a problem with
Speaker 3: local regulations and.
Speaker 4: You have to solve it at the local.
Speaker 2: You can't solve it nationally.
Speaker 5: But we are not alone in the need for increased supplies, right.
Speaker 5: We have a problem for a long time, thirty years.
Speaker 5: We have been und here alone for thirty years. The
Speaker 5: chair of my board right now is the CEO of
Speaker 5: Culti Group, which is the third largest home builder in
Speaker 5: the United States, and he has been very instructive with
Speaker 5: us to think about it. We're an economic development organization, Okay,
Speaker 5: so we think about creating jobs. So the second thing
Speaker 5: we think about is where do we get the talent
Speaker 5: to fill the job? How are we skilling them right?
Speaker 5: He goes, are you thinking about where they're going to
Speaker 5: lay their head at night? And I said, gosh, we
Speaker 5: really haven't thought about that. And you said for every
Speaker 5: two jobs you create, you need one home. And so
Speaker 5: if you have thirty years of underbuilding across the United States,
Speaker 5: I think it's four million homes.
Speaker 4: We are behind.
Speaker 5: You not only have to build the amount you need
Speaker 5: every year, you now have to play catch up. So
Speaker 5: the way that we have engaged is working with the
Speaker 5: corporate community. We're working with our state politicians because they
Speaker 5: have a role. Even though local zoning controls, they will
Speaker 5: have a role in how growth proceeds. And then also
Speaker 5: working with local governments to think about how do we
Speaker 5: take our transit system and build transit oriented development and
Speaker 5: put housing right on transit. That is an opportun unity,
Speaker 5: that's low hanging fruit for us.
Speaker 4: So that's how we're thinking about it. But this is
Speaker 4: relatively new.
Speaker 5: What is the role of the business community and thinking
Speaker 5: about how to create affordable housing?
Speaker 4: And when I say affordable, I mean attainable. It is
Speaker 4: not it's all layers of the status.
Speaker 3: They should have an interest in it because if there
Speaker 3: isn't housing, then it's expensive. Then you have to pay
Speaker 3: your employees more, and that's honestly his margins. So they're
Speaker 3: ripple effects throughout the economy.
Speaker 5: If there's no housing, you've just captured what Ryan Marshall
Speaker 5: says on a daily basis to us that is incumbent
Speaker 5: upon us as an organization actually kind of push the
Speaker 5: local and state governments to do more, and then also
Speaker 5: as an organization, what can we do to support them.
Speaker 1: You sound very optimistic, which I love, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's certainly been an interesting year to say the least,
Speaker 1: and interesting sometimes being difficult and stressful. Tariffs, other White
Speaker 1: House policies, inflation. What impact is any of that having
Speaker 1: a development in your city.
Speaker 5: We haven't seen anything yet, and I think that's largely nothing. Yeah. No,
Speaker 5: I haven't heard any companies make any major decisions.
Speaker 4: Based on tariffs or trade.
Speaker 5: We haven't heard of massive freezing or hiring, layoffs or
Speaker 5: layoffs of individuals. I think that is largely and again
Speaker 5: this is my personal opinion, but what I have gleaned
Speaker 5: from CEO to.
Speaker 1: Talk to CEOs, I do they talk to community leaders and.
Speaker 4: They're not saying, yeah, we're not doing this project.
Speaker 5: Because no, they in some ways have just said, Well,
Speaker 5: we're sitting in what I would say watch mode for
Speaker 5: the moment, like where are we going? Where are we heading?
Speaker 5: What is that strategy and vision ahead? Remember we're only
Speaker 5: nine months into this administration, so I think a lot of.
Speaker 1: Members were only nine months look at all that has happened.
Speaker 5: But what I am hearing from CEOs is they have
Speaker 5: a strategy, yeah, that they have developed with their board,
Speaker 5: their shareholders have adopted, and they are just controlling what
Speaker 5: they can control, and that is moving forward. And that's
Speaker 5: what I'm hearing from the C suite in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: All Right, we only have about thirty forty seconds, But Brett,
Speaker 1: I want to.
Speaker 2: Tell you the last question.
Speaker 6: Well, real quick, one of the big projects we talk
Speaker 6: about things going forward Centennial Yards. Yeah, five billion dollar
Speaker 6: project right around the Stadium's a big entertainment district. How's
Speaker 6: that going? Tariffs are not slowing that down? And will
Speaker 6: it be ready for the World Cup?
Speaker 5: It will be ready for the World Cup at least
Speaker 5: phase one, which includes a hotel and apartments. If you
Speaker 5: are familiar with Hudson Yards, it's a stack on stack
Speaker 5: on stack. It's the same developer that did Hudson Yards.
Speaker 5: This was a fifty acre undeveloped for seventy years gash
Speaker 5: in our downtown, and it is going to be ready.
Speaker 5: We're not only going to have housing and hotels, we're
Speaker 5: also going to have an entertainment space that will be
Speaker 5: constructed an online called Cosm by June first. So we're
Speaker 5: really excited about the opportunity to display that when World Cup.
Speaker 4: Kicks off June first, just around the corner, yeah, right,
Speaker 4: when they have a cowntown call.
Speaker 1: Trust me, what a joy to have both of you
Speaker 1: here in studio. Katie Kirkpatrick, President and CEO of the
Speaker 1: Metro Atlanta Chamber, thank you, Thank you so much. Hope
Speaker 1: we can catch up again with you in the future.
Speaker 1: And Brett Pooley always good to have you normally in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: but here in our.
Speaker 4: New York studio. Good to have you here. He is
Speaker 4: an Atlanta beer chief at Bloomberg News.