Link to Article by Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Douglas Sams.

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Transcript of Douglas Sams’ Atlanta Business Chronicle article:

Atlanta’s long overlooked south side is finally proving its potential as the next frontier for the region’s economic development.

This week Atlanta Business Chronicle reported The Kroger Co. will help kick-off a combined 2-million-square-foot distribution and warehouse project in Forest Park.

It’s part of an even larger planned redevelopment of Fort Gillem into a regional logistics campus.

The 1,500-acre former U.S. Army base is “one of those catalytic sites that can transform the region,” said Dan Reuter, community development manager with the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Cincinnati-based Kroger (NYSE: KR), the nation’s largest supermarket chain, is the first spark. It plans occupy a new 1-million-square-foot building at Fort Gillem, according to sources familiar with the plan.

The distribution and warehouse space at Fort Gillem will form one of the largest industrial projects in metro Atlanta in recent years. It marks the first phase of a massive, long-term redevelopment of the army base. It also underscores broader ambitions to spur economic development around Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport.he