General, page-361

May 06, 2019

By

• J.D. Capelouto, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County’s top leaders joined Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday to herald the grand opening of the new headquarters for the nation’s largest mattress company.

Serta Simmons Bedding consolidated its locations into a modern new building on the site of a former General Motors plant in Doraville, bringing more than 500 jobs to the area.

The GM plant closed in 2008. Around 2014, The Integral Group announced its desire to turn the land into a mini-city called Assembly.

The former GM assembly plant near Peachtree Road and I-285 was founded in 1947 and eventually had 4,000 employees spread over a plot of land the size of 125 football fields. It shut down in 2008, at the height of the recession, and the land has generally remained dormant since then.

The developers designed the “city within a city” to be transit-oriented; I-285 and the MARTA Gold Line track are visible from the new Serta Simmons Building.

Serta Simmons wanted the new location to be easily accessible by multiple modes of transportation, executives said.

“MARTA was really important to us,” Executive Vice President Kristen McGuffey said, adding that Doraville “ended up being the epicenter of where our current employee population was.”

Serta Simmons previously had several office locations across metro Atlanta, and one in Illinois.

The Assembly project will also include parks and retail areas. The Doraville City Council voted earlier this year to allow open containers of alcohol in parts of the district to encourage entertainment and foot traffic. Third Rail Studios, a film and production company, has had a location at the site since 2016.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/gov-kemp-touts-new-mini-city-development-rides-self-driving-shuttle/w1SbYJHc2h4MVEzs3me1CP/