While the Atlanta office market had major tenant occupancies in the third quarter, it was the silent majority of smaller tenants (15,000 SF or less) vacating their office space which attributed to the negative 667,094 SF of net absorption. Vacancy continued to trend upward, ending the third quarter at 15.6%.

Office sublease availability has increased 42% year-over-year due to recent work from home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. In the third quarter, Macy’s put their 107,712 SF new technology hub space on the market for sublease. However, sublease only accounted for 9% of all Atlanta’s availability at the end of the third quarter.

Leasing activity, while not as robust as quarters past, still stood strong at 1,751,074 SF leased in the third quarter. Atlanta continues to attract technology tenants to the market and was recently named the #1 Metro Area Tech Hub by Growth Leader. The deal of the quarter was Mailchimp’s announcement that they will move their headquarters from Ponce City Market to a tower in the new proposed development at 760 Ralph McGill. The new development is set to kick off in mid-2021 and Mailchimp’s move is projected to be in late 2022.