Atlanta’s Office Tenants Are Renewing Leases More Often as Vacancies Stay High and Costs Rise

A shift from relocations to recommitments

Metro Atlanta’s office market is showing a notable change in tenant behavior: more companies are choosing to renew existing leases rather than relocate. The trend has accelerated even as overall leasing activity weakened in 2025, reflecting a market in which uncertainty, elevated build-out costs, and uneven performance across submarkets are reshaping how occupiers make real estate decisions.

Leasing volume in 2025 fell by nearly 11% from the prior year, but renewals strengthened sharply late in the year. Office lease renewals more than doubled in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter, marking the largest jump since the market’s low point in 2023. In the same period, four of the five largest office lease signings in metro Atlanta were renewals.

Vacancy remains a defining constraint

The renewal surge is unfolding against a backdrop of high availability. More than 31% of metro Atlanta office square footage has been marketed as available, keeping competitive pressure on landlords and widening the gap between best-in-class buildings and the rest of the inventory. The imbalance is particularly visible across neighborhoods: some suburban submarkets have remained comparatively tight, while several intown areas continue to post elevated vacancy.

• West Midtown has posted some of the region’s highest trophy-space vacancy levels.
• Downtown has also remained elevated relative to several suburban districts.
• Suburban markets including Central Perimeter and Cumberland/Galleria have been among the tightest.

Landlords are investing to keep tenants in place

With tenants increasingly focused on minimizing disruption and controlling costs, owners of older but well-located buildings are leaning into upgrades meant to retain occupants and compete with newer towers. Lobby renovations, refreshed conference facilities, and improved fitness centers have become common components of retention strategies.

One high-profile example in Midtown involves 1100 Peachtree, a roughly 35-year-old tower that ended 2025 about 76% leased. The building’s owner launched a multimillion-dollar lobby renovation and additional amenity upgrades while securing a major renewal from the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton for approximately 148,000 square feet.

New construction is limited, but top-tier space is not immune

Despite strong demand for the most competitive buildings, even newly delivered towers are taking longer to fully lease than was typical before the pandemic. At the same time, the region’s development pipeline has thinned considerably. The only new office space widely expected to deliver in 2026 is about 224,000 square feet within Rockefeller Group’s 1072 W Peachtree project in Midtown.

Net absorption turned positive in three of four quarters in 2025, signaling stabilization even as overall availability remains historically high.

For many employers, stricter in-person work expectations and plans for staffing growth are increasingly influencing space decisions. In that environment, staying put—paired with targeted building upgrades—has emerged as a practical option in a market still balancing recovery with record vacancy.