A refreshed office building and major employment hub is officially open for business in a prominent Midtown location across the street from remade Colony Square.

Visa hosted a ribbon-cutting and grand opening Wednesday for its modernized offices at 1200 Peachtree Street that are expected to quickly fill with Atlanta-based employees as the company expands locally.

According to company officials, Visa has grown its Atlanta team to 350 employees, with plans to expand to 1,000 workers based in Midtown by 2024.

In announcing the deal in 2021, Visa brass cited Atlanta’s wealth of “financial technology expertise, resilient entrepreneurs, diverse perspectives, and a vibrant community culture” as reasons for investing in growth here.

Dignitaries such as Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens were on hand for this week’s ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Visa's move marks the latest tech-job win for Midtown—where Google, Microsoft, Airbnb, and other technology companies have all built or announced new hubs. 

Visa’s new digs—replete with oversized, random shoutouts to Atlanta neighborhoods on office walls—constitute about one-third of the 1200 Peachtree building where railroad company Norfolk Southern had long been headquartered. The building stands adjacent to the Woodruff Arts Center, High Museum, and Atlanta Symphony Hall, with a new plaza fronting Peachtree.

Nicole Craine/AP; courtesy of Visa

Nicole Craine/AP; courtesy of Visa

Cousins Properties bought the 370,000-square-foot building from Norfolk Southern in 2019 as part of a larger deal that included Cousins’ development of the train company’s new headquarters farther south in Midtown.

The building, as Cousins officials have noted, is within a short walk of more than 50 restaurants and Piedmont Park, and about three minutes by foot from Arts Center MARTA station. According to Cousins, Visa signed a longterm lease of roughly 123,000 square feet.

Have a look around in the gallery above.

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