Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 3, Issue 3

139 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 PEACHTREE CORNERS , GEORGI A The color printer and modem were invented in Peachtree Corners and now, through the publicly funded Curiosity Lab, researchers have a real world test environment for intelligent mobility and smart city technology. Peachtree Corners was formally incorporated in 2010 and is now a thriving metropolis of 50,000. The city is known for its technology advancements, as well as its 1:1 job-to-resident ratio. When the pandemic struck and more people were having to work from home, the city’s major companies didn’t necessarily need the same kind of bricks and mortar office space they once required. But that didn’t stop the innovators in Peachtree Corners from finding the perfect solutions. Johnson reports, “We have had some companies say, ‘Look, we still need to have employees come in, so we are going to wall off a lot more offices than we had back in the day and do less cubicles so that people have a barrier.’ That has helped in that some businesses needed more square footage, even though they’re not necessarily adding more employees. It’s been an excuse for companies to look for better amenities, better location, better facilities than they had prior.” That has worked in the city’s favor, with more and more companies realizing that Peachtree Corners is an ideal solution for post-pandemic life. “We’ve been successful in luring companies from other locations, either outside the city or outside the state, into Peachtree Corners because of some of the things we have going on here,” Johnson says. Intuitive Surgical recently announced that Peachtree Corners will become the site of its east coast headquarters. The robotic-assisted surgical equipment developer is building a $600 million campus, which will create 1500 new jobs. “There were a lot of factors that went into play, but certainly in their case, our relationships with companies because of Curiosity Lab was