National Archives Awards Contract for new Southeast Regional Records Center Facility
Press Release · Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Washington, DC

The National Archives announces the selection of Highwoods Properties of Raleigh, NC as the developer for its Southeast Regional Records Center. The new Records Center will be developed in the Southpark Industrial Park in Clayton County, GA. The facility will have a footprint of approximately 350,000 square feet and a storage capacity of nearly 1.75 million cubic feet of Federal records. It will accommodate 75 NARA staff members and contractors as well as 100 visitors and patrons.

"The Atlanta facility will provide a new home worthy of the unique holdings of NARA's Southeast Region," said Archivist of the United States, John W. Carlin. "The facility provides ample capacity for records storage and anticipates future needs in the ever-changing records management and electronic records environments. It will bring state-of-the-art technology to the management of records under NARA's custodianship."

Founded in 1978, and operating in nine states, Highwoods Properties is one of the nation's largest fully integrated real estate operating companies. Regarding the project, Highwoods' Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ed Fritsch commented, "We are pleased to be selected to build a state-of-the-art records storage facility for NARA, the agency entrusted with the safekeeping of our federal government records. We believe our team, working in concert with representatives from NARA, will deliver a quality facility that will properly fulfill the Agency's long-term requirement."

The new records center will consolidate operations of the region's three existing facilities in East Point, GA; Palmetto, GA; and Birmingham, AL. Once completed, the new center will store records for use by Federal agencies located in the Southeast Region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Significant holdings include Federal records created by regional U.S. District/Bankruptcy Courts, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

New to the Southeast Regional Records Center will be state-of-the-art facilities such as an on-site electronic records project/services room, a special projects room, and separate records containment, treatment, and recovery rooms. These facilities will enable NARA to roll out new services and operations after building occupancy. The Atlanta facility will comply fully with the provisions of 36 CFR 1228 Subpart K, the regulation that sets facilities standards to ensure protection of Federal records from threats such as fire, theft, pests, floods and natural disasters.

"The new facility represents the culmination of a planning process geared toward creating a modern, cost-effective, and forward-looking records center that will ultimately address the realities of paper- and electronic-based records storage," said James McSweeney, Regional Administrator for the NARA Southeast Region. "Staff, researchers, and members of the Federal community are excited about the prospect of all regional records center holdings being under one new and modern roof."

For additional PRESS information, please contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 301-837-1700, public.affairs@nara.gov.

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