Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush have confirmed the cloud-based EHR company’s plans to expand in Atlanta, something that has been talked about for months.

The fast-growing cloud-based health IT company, headquartered in Watertown, Mass., will invest $10.8 million in the expansion at the Ponce City Market development, and it promises to create 500 new high-paying jobs over five years, the governor said in making the announcing earlier this week.

[See also: athenahealth in growth mode in Atlanta.]

Ponce City Market, the former City Hall East, is a mixed-use project that will include residential units, restaurants and retail in addition to office space. Athenahealth, which will occupy 75,000 square feet, will be the development’s first major office tenant. The company also has operations in Rome, Ga., as well as in Alabama, California, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and India.

“Ponce City Market offers athenahealth everything we could ask for in an office space as we deepen our roots in Atlanta and presents us with the opportunity to provide a daily environment that lives up to the work-life aspirations of our company,” Bush said in a news release. “We are building a national health information backbone that will have a revolutionary impact on the cost and quality of healthcare and are increasingly focused on ensuring our teams work in environments that encourage innovation and collaboration and support the important work we do.”

Athenahealth, founded in 1997, offers cloud-based services for EHR, practice management and care coordination to more than 40,000 providers nationwide. The company acquired Alpharetta-based Anodyne Health in 2009. In response to its rapid growth and expanding markets in the Southeast, athenahealth will consolidate its Alpharetta workforce of approximately 100 people to its new location at Ponce City Market, and will add 500 additional jobs over the next five years.

[See also: Athenahealth inks $169M real estate deal with Harvard University.]

“Athenahealth is one of the fastest-growing companies in HIT, an exploding industry in which the largest sector is already thriving in Georgia thanks to our robust telecommunications infrastructure and healthcare system, talented workforce and pro-business environment,” said Deal, in a statement. “Athenahealth’s strategic decision to locate here moves us closer to becoming the No. 1 place in the nation to do business.”

HIT is rapidly growing, and spending in the United States is expected to exceed $69 billion over the next six years. Georgia’s HIT sector is the largest in the nation, according to Deal, with more than 225 companies employing approximately 30,000 people.