With unmasked citizens buzzing about Atlanta and full-capacity sporting events, Q2 2021 is feeling like “Summer 2019.” FanDuel is in the spotlight this quarter with its 66,971 SF lease at Ponce City Market for its Atlanta technology campus. This lease, along with a possible Twitter expansion, is helping Ponce ease the pain of losing Mailchimp last year to the nearby new development, 760 Ralph McGill. Ponce City Market, 725 Ponce, and 760 Ralph McGill have become a talent drawing trio of Beltline-centered trophy buildings. Additionally, West Atlanta is still poised to explode with growth from Microsoft’s future technology center, Echo Street West development, Quarry Yards development, and planned Beltline extensions.
While these recent monster leases from companies like FanDuel, Microsoft, and Airbnb have made headlines, the Atlanta office market is understandably still hurting from the pandemic. Financial difficulties and re-evaluating office needs has caused a reluctancy for small to mid-size tenants to lease additional space. Hybrid work models were increasingly common in the pre-pandemic war for talent and “the Great Reset” will only increase its prevalence. Evidence of this is the 5.6 million square feet of sublease space holding steady on the market – a 46% increase from 1 year ago. Q2 2021 represented the slowest sublease growth during the pandemic, signaling companies steadily returning to office. Our pre-pandemic momentum, booming technology sector growth, and healthy construction pipeline are all indications that Atlanta will have a healthy return to office – even if the new office environment isn’t identical to years past.