Fortune 500 company NCR Corporation is ditching Gwinnett County for Midtown to help create a "Silicon Valley of the East," as one leader puts it, and it sounds like they'll be gunning for a world headquarters that makes a statement. At the corner of Spring and Eighth streets, between brand-new student-focused towers University House and Square on Fifth, NCR wants a "trophy" tower where they'll plant roots for decades to come. This month, NCR finalized incentive agreements with Invest Atlanta and developer Cousins Properties; meanwhile, Cousins closed on the piece of Centergy North where they'll build a state-of-the-art, 485,000-square-foot high-rise. In a press release, Cousins CEO Larry Gellerstedt promised that NCR's global headquarters will be "an iconic addition to the Midtown skyline."

Officials didn't specify how tall this cutting-edge, skyline-redefining edifice will be. But in terms of square footage, the NCR tower will offer a little less than half the floor space of One Atlantic Center up the street, Atlanta's third tallest building. That could be meaningless, but there you have it.

Construction on the NCR HQ is expected to launch early next year, and officials said it could wrap by late 2017. With two stadiums, a substantial swath of the Beltline and countless large-scale construction projects scheduled to deliver, the year 2017 is starting to get all 2014 up in here.

· Cousins Properties inks NCR Corp. to 485,000-square-foot headquarters project [ABC]

· NCR Announces Key Milestones, Progress on World Headquarters Campus in Midtown [MAC]