Tenants are battling it out for Atlanta’s top-tier office space as trophy availability tightens and new office construction draws to a halt.
With no end to the flight-to-quality trend in sight, Class B assets accounted for a whopping 70 percent of the market’s overall negative absorption (-736,682 square feet total net) in the first quarter of 2025, while Trophy assets recorded positive absorption (+114,579 square feet).
Furthermore, office buildings that delivered between 2016 and 2021, which amount to almost 14 million square feet of space, currently average 92 percent occupancy. This underscores the growing divide between the haves and have-nots in Atlanta’s office market.
Premium space in demand
As office leasing activity reaches its highest level since 2019, decision-makers face a rapidly evolving landscape where securing the right space requires a highly motivated and strategic approach. With rising attendance mandates, workforce expansion and a limited supply of premium office space, competition for the best locations is intensifying.
In Atlanta, submarkets like Midtown and Central Perimeter continue to outperform. Mini submarkets surrounding mixed-use districts like Avalon and The Battery (i.e. “urban-edge” in the suburbs) are also in high demand among tenants craving walkability and upscale amenities in the metro’s most sought-after suburban neighborhoods.
Midtown, home to Fortune 500 companies like Cisco and Honeywell, continues to attract high-profile tenants drawn to Tech Square and its energetic, highly amenitized and walkable environment. In January, agriculture and food giant Cargill celebrated the opening of its new Atlanta tech hub: a three-floor sublease in NCR’s 14-story tower. Attracted to the city’s concentration of universities and talent, Midtown was an ideal choice for this user.
But successful office buildings do not have to be within the core of a great urban environment like Midtown to thrive. A strong example of this is Perimeter Summit, a 1.7 million-square-foot, Class A, mixed-use development in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket. Considered an urban-edge location, the Perimeter is one of the most accessible neighborhoods in Atlanta, conveniently positioned near major interstates and highways and served by more MARTA stations than any other submarket in the city.
With more than 258,000 square feet of new leases signed at the property in 2024, including yet another Fortune 500 company, its leasing success follows a major investment by ownership to transform the campus into a mixed-use environment that offers community-driven amenities like scenic walking trails, expansive greenspaces, social events and soon, 350 multifamily units.
Construction at 15-year low
As the competition for prime space and locations heats up, Atlanta’s construction pipeline sits at just 474,000 square feet across two properties — its lowest level since 2010 — with just one project slated for delivery this year and no new product delivering after 2026.
Sublease availability has also continued to decline, representing only 3.6 percent of all inventory at the end of the first quarter. This was down over 1 million square feet from the same time last year.
With limited availability of high-quality urban and urban-edge space in Atlanta’s top submarkets and less new construction, tenants must come to the table sooner.
Return-to-office
Office attendance mandates are increasing in Atlanta and globally, and JLL’s Global Real Estate Outlook 2025 predicts these policies will continue shifting toward an average of four days per week. The Home Depot, UPS and NCR Voyix are just a few of the Atlanta-based corporations to recently introduce stricter return-to-office (RTO) policies.
In addition, headcount and footprint growth is expected by most organizations over the next five years, according to JLL’s Future of Work survey. This is supported by an increase in active tenant searches in Atlanta and a rise in requirements for both existing tenants and a surge of companies exploring Atlanta from other markets.
Decision-makers must prioritize office environments that enhance employee engagement, productivity and retention — key factors in today’s competitive talent market. When bringing people back to in-person work, it’s crucial to create an environment where people want to spend time and collaborate. This desire or necessity to build a culture of in-person collaboration and connection is what’s fueling Atlanta’s flight-to-quality trend.
Beware, tenants should expect to have a harder time finding top-tier space that meets their needs. As supply shortages for in-demand spaces and locations intensify in Atlanta, companies need to affirm their strategies around the kind of space they are looking for and be proactive to secure it.
— By Gregg Metcalf, executive vice president, JLL. This article was originally published in the May 2025 issue of Southeast Real Estate Business.