Tie Down Engineering, a manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of products for the agriculture, safety, marine, manufactured housing and roofing industries, has called the Fulton Industrial Boulevard area home for more than four decades. Founded in Miami in 1968 by Chuck MacKarvich, the company got its start producing tie-down anchors for manufactured homes. Chuck, who remains chairman today, experienced steady growth throughout the 1970s and realized that operating a rapidly expanding manufacturing business from South Florida would have challenges. Thus, he set out to identify a new location for Tie Down Engineering, landing in the Fulton Industrial Boulevard area where today the company is one of the largest property owners.

“When deciding to relocate the company in 1981, I zeroed in Atlanta. If you drew a circle around the metropolitan area, you would have access to approximately 70% of the U.S. population within one day’s truck drive,” said Chuck. “Atlanta was – and still is – a crossroads between the East and the West and the North and the South. And in terms of deciding on the Fulton Industrial area, quick access to the four major interstates that intersect Atlanta made the choice easy.

With plenty of land available in the Fulton Industrial area in the early 1980s, Tie Down Engineering built a 40,000 square-foot facility on Stonehill Drive and bought property next to it to allow for future growth. The move to Atlanta bolstered the company’s growth. Today, Tie Down Engineering has 12 buildings, eight of which are contiguous, over 300 employees and manufactures more than 8,000 products across six different divisions. The company is known for innovative product design, custom manufacturing and streamlining the assembly process. Tie Down Engineering credits its longevity to the high-quality processes that run over approximately 800,000 square feet of ISO-9001 facilities in Atlanta. And the company is extremely proud that all of its products are made in America – right here at its headquarters in Atlanta.

Over the past four decades, Chuck has witnessed firsthand the many changes that have taken place in the Fulton Industrial area. He was a big proponent of the creation of the community improvement district and served as a board member and treasurer for nearly five years – in fact, many of the organization’s early meetings were held at the Tie Down Engineering office. Chuck said, “The CID has done a great job of cleaning up the area. Before the CID, there was a lack of government support for the Fulton Industrial area. The cleanup of the I-20 corridor and better public safety has improved property values.” Chuck feels good about the future of both the company and the Fulton Industrial area. His two sons, son-in-law and nephew all work in the business and agree the location is perfect for Tie Down Engineering.