Changes for Atlanta Site

MetroNexus is looking at alternate uses for at least part of its 1 million square foot MetroNexus Atlanta telecom building. The options for the site may be expanding, as the shrinking pool of land for residential development in Atlanta has builders eyeing open space in the industrial corridor that includes the MetroNexus site.

"We'll continue to earmark a piece of the building for (data center) purposes, because we've installed a huge amount of power and fiber," Alex Twining, president of MetroNexus, said in the AJC article. "That raises the question of what to do with the rest of the building." Office is a possibility, but interest in residential development also raises the prospect that retail might succeed at the location.

The MetroNexus building, located at 1033 Jefferson Street, was constructed by Sears in 1954 as the company's southeast distribution center. An $80 million capital investment by MetroNexus and CoreLocation transformed the site into a mission-critical facility. In 2001 Sprint leased 100,000 square feet at the building as part of its expansion into the hosting and colocation sector. In June Sprint said the Atlanta center was among those it would be closing as it withdrew from the US hosting market.