2013 Off to a Great Start in Atlanta–Retail, Jobs, Expansion

RETAIL
Beginning the retail and advancing to major corporation reboots, rebuilds and remodels, 2013 is off to a very promising start only a month and a half in. A slow-but-steady, fragile recovery has been underway in the Atlanta retail market, with industry experts expecting 2013 to be a year of continued improvement.
The 324 million-square-foot Atlanta retail market absorbed 1.3 million square feet of space during the first three quarters of 2012, according to a recent report from the Atlanta office of Cushman & Wakefield of Georgia Inc., which notes that “Increasing tenant demand led to a fourth straight quarter in net occupancy gains for the first time since the third quarter of 2008.”
JOBS
Communications equipment firm ViaSat Inc. will add about 275 jobs at its metro Atlanta campus. The expansion will more than double the company's local workforce.
Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat (NASDAQ: VSAT) will lease a new $10 million, 60,000 square foot office building at its Breckinridge Park campus in Duluth, which is also the company's regional headquarters.
State Farm is seeking about 200,000 square feet of office space and may have zeroed in on the Hammond Exchange building in Dunwoody, Atlanta Business Chronicle has learned.
The planned expansion comes six months after State Farm said it will bring at least 500 jobs to the Central Perimeter business district.
It doesn't stop there. A 280-acre film complex is being planned near Fayetteville, a project that could employ up to 1,500 at full capacity.
Rivers Rock, LLC, representing a group of Atlanta-area investors, plans to build what they claim would be the largest film production complex in metro Atlanta. The investment group said it is in discussions with London-based Pinewood Studios Group to manage and operate the studio complex.
Pinewood Studios is best known a the home of the Superman and James Bond film series.
EXPANSION
Bitcoin payment processor BitPay will relocate its headquarters to Atlanta, where it will open a software development center.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that is the most widely used alternative currency. All bitcoins converted at the current market price would be worth more than $100 million, according to Wikipedia.
Emory Healthcare will invest $312 million in expanding its flagship hospital on Clifton Road.
The health system previously announced plans to build a new 9-story clinical tower, to accomodate an increase in patient volumes.
While Emory declined to disclose the number of jobs that might be created, based on industry estimates, a 200-bed hospital would employ about 1,000.
The tower, which will be build across the hospital, will have 210 inpatient beds — a combination of new and existing beds that will relocate from Emory University Hospital.
These stories and more found in full at bizjournals.com/atlanta