GT Research Completes $42M Expansion At Cobb South Campus

MARIETTA, GA -- The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has completed a $42 million redevelopment program which includes two technical facilities and spans 350,000 square feet. The facilities serve as an expansion of GTRI’s Cobb South Campus.

GTRI purchased four buildings on an unused, 52-acre Lockheed Martin site next to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in December 2017. Needing to quickly redevelop two of the buildings into dynamic research facilities, GTRI selected McCarthy Building Companies with Flad Architects as their design-build team and designated JLL’s project and development services division to manage the design and construction phases in the complex, multi-million-dollar redevelopment program.

The design-build team spent considerable effort coordinating design objectives with existing conditions to ensure alignment between GTRI’s program, their goals and the project budget. Renovations included transforming 205,500 square feet of retired office space into a state-of-the-art research facility, featuring computing and electronics laboratories. It also included the 144,500-square-foot renovation of a 403,500-square-foot high-bay industrial warehouse, which GTRI will also use for research. This space incorporates two, 10-ton cranes and a 30-ton crane to handle heavy specialized large equipment.

All utilities on-site were required to be severed from Lockheed Martin’s existing operations, with new connections created to provide power, water, gas and sanitary sewer to the GTRI site. These updated utility connections include a new sanitary sewer force main beneath active CSX railroad tracks. JLL led coordination, management and approvals for this work with CSX, the utility organizations and the Cobb County Department of Transportation.