Big Brown is planning a $400M ground parcel facility on the southern outskirts of Downtown Atlanta that will be the third-largest for the company in the US.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed—along with a host of state and business dignitaries—confirmed our story from earlier this week that UPS is planning a 1.2M SF facility with Majestic Realty next to Fulton County Airport-Charlie Brown Field.

This is the latest in a string of big economic development wins for the metro region, including GE Digital, NCR, Honeywell and Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, bringing thousands of new jobs to the state.

UPS CEO David Abney says the facility—known as Project Shark in economic development circles—will be the third-largest such facility in UPS's logistics chain and be the hub for package delivery in the Southeast.

It's part of a larger strategic realignment that will focus on e-commerce. The facility will accommodate 100,000 last-mile delivery packages per hour, half of which will be from e-commerce vendors, along 15 miles of conveyor attaching three labels a second, officials say.

"This building is going to be a showcase for UPS customers," David says. The project, which will offer a massive amount of UPS truck and trailer parking, will deliver by 2018, in time for the holidays.

UPS isn't the only major package delivery company with big facility projects in Metro Atlanta. As we exclusively reported, FedEx also is expected to announce a 1M SF facility in Braselton with Duke Realty, focused on e-commerce delivery as well.

Majestic's Stan Conway (on left)—who will spearhead the development of the facility for UPS—says he sees it as fueling more demand for warehouse space along the Fulton Industrial Boulevard corridor; a good thing for Majestic, since it's also underway on the 1.1M SF spec Majestic Center IV bulk distribution hub.

Georgia Department of Economic Development head Pat Wilson—who is succeeding Chris Carr, who was recently named as the state's attorney general—tells us this project has been in the works since March, and numerous other Southeastern states were in competition for it.

As for a pipeline of further economic development projects, Pat says the state's list of prospects is "extremely strong," helped by Metro Atlanta's tech-centric and educated workforce. "Every job announcement right now is based on workforce," he says.