Savannah Chamber

26 11 recently announced by the Georgia Department of Economic Development are located in the metropolitan area. Due to COVID-19, the area's high dependence on air transportation was a negative economic factor in 2020, but looking beyond the virus crisis recent and planned improvements at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport bode well for Atlanta's future growth. In normal times, the airport is the world's busiest for passenger traffic. It is the number one high-tech airport in the nation. It has excellent access to mass transit. Extreme weather events capable of shutting down the airport are relatively rare. The airport makes the Atlanta area an ideal location to operate corporate headquarters due to its large number of direct domestic and international flights. In post-pandemic America, multi-state and multi-national companies based in Atlanta will fly executives and salespeople everywhere almost every day. Production sites near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and/or near cold storage facilities appeal to manufacturers of perishable biomedical products (e.g., plasma-based pharmaceuticals) that require cold storage and cold shipping. Lightweight, highly perishable, or time-sensitive products are well suited to air transportation, and therefore many high-tech production companies consider the extensive air cargo facilities at Hartsfield-Jackson to be essential to their operations. The airport also makes Atlanta an excellent hub from which to manage operations or provide business services to a geographically disperse client base. Prior to the pandemic, Atlanta was the sixth most-visited city by U.S. visitors – behind only Orlando in the South. That high ranking was mostly due to Atlanta's large meetings and convention industry, which focused primarily on business travelers. The metro Atlanta market ranks seventh among US cities in terms of its inventory of hotel rooms. The area's high reliance on business travel was a major deterrent to growth in 2020, but will be a positive factor once a medical solution to the virus is widely available. Prior to the pandemic, the Georgia Aquarium was Atlanta's most popular attraction. A major expansion of the Georgia Aquarium is in the works, which should boost its popularity even further once the pandemic has run its course. Cyclical improvements in the national and regional economies will boost Georgia's hospitality industry, but the gains are coming off very depressed 2020 comparisons. Full recovery of hotel occupancy rates could take several years. Looking forward, airport improvements will help Atlanta to become even more popular as a destination for tourists, persons attending business meetings & conventions, trade shows, as well as sporting/cultural events. The Atlanta MSA is highly specialized in transportation, logistics, warehousing, and wholesale trade, with employment concentrated these inherently cyclical industries. The continued growth in US and global GDP in 2021 will support these industries and in turn Atlanta's economy. Large projects announced in 2020 include Home Depot will build three new warehousing facilities in DeKalb, Fulton, and Henry counties, creating 1,000 jobs. Hello Fresh will build a distribution center in Newnan, bringing 750 jobs to Coweta County. Amazon will build a new fulfillment center in Coweta County, creating 500 jobs. Despite COVID-19, Atlanta continues to develop as an inland port for transportation, distribution and warehousing products. The connectivity of Georgia's ports to the interstate system, rail, and air cargo is excellent. Among major US metros, Atlanta is a relatively low-cost, low-risk place to operate a warehouse. A substantial amount of high-tech warehouse/distribution space is under construction, which will provide the capacity for additional growth of Atlanta transportation and logistics cluster. Given the federal budget situation, one major long-term plus for Atlanta is that the metro area is not very dependent on federal government jobs. The Atlanta MSA's only sizable federal employer is the CDC – about 9,200 employees. Atlanta is not the home of a major military base. Federal, state, and local government jobs combined account for only about 12 percent of total employment metro Atlanta versus 15 percent for the state and the nation. Thus, public-sector restructuring should be less problematic for Atlanta's growth than for growth elsewhere in Georgia or the nation. Due to above average growth in employment and population, the housing market is stronger in the Atlanta MSA than in most large markets. As of mid-2020, Atlanta's home prices were 29 percent above their pre Great Recession peak levels. The most recently posted year-over-year price increase – between 2019 Q2 and 2020 Q2 – was 4.2 percent. In 2021, home prices will continue to increase, but the rate of home price appreciation will slow significantly. Nonetheless, sustained increases in home prices will support growth in consumer spending – especially on home improvements – and entrepreneurial activity. Atlanta's 2021 single- family homebuilding outlook is positive, but not robust. Job growth, population growth, increasing rents, very low mortgage rates, and a scarcity of listings of existing

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