Atlanta, GA

Kraft Foods Inc., the nation’s largest food company, is targeting Atlanta’s south side for up to a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center that could create at least 200 new jobs.

Kraft, known for brands such as Oscar Mayer meats, Nabiscocookies and Cheez Whiz, has met with real estate developers and brokers during the past several months as the company looked for a nearly 90-acre site, sources familiar with the process said.

Kraft, based in Northfield, Ill., could follow similar moves made by other food companies, including General Mills Inc.(NYSE: GIS), which announced it was launching a new distribution center in Social Circle, and The J.M. Smucker Co.(NYSE: SJM), which earlier this year said it was locating a Southeast hub near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It would also continue the positive momentum created in recent weeks by NCR Corp.’s decision to relocate its headquarters from Dayton, Ohio, to Duluth, even as the economy remains on shaky ground and the state’s jobless rate nears 10 percent.

“The thing about Atlanta is that it will surprise people in how quickly it comes back to life and in how it can be an economic engine unto itself,” said Caldwell Zimmerman, a principal with real estate services firm Colliers Spectrum Cauble Inc., who helped put together the 1.5 million Whirlpool Corp.project in Henry County in 2007.

“Not every industry group is in the tank,” said Zimmerman, who added he hadn’t heard anything specific about the Kraft project.

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Heather Francis
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Heather.Francis@colliers.com

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