Economy
As of September, Georgia ranked first for the 13th consecutive year in Area Development’s 2026 Top States for Doing Business. It led in multiple categories including the top overall state, as well as its access to skilled manufacturing labor, cooperative and responsive state and local government, and overall speed to market.
Atlanta continued to benefit from Georgia’s business-friendly environment, with the unemployment rate declining slightly to 3.2%, well below the U.S. average. Siemens and Highline Warren made notable commitments to the metro, announcing investments of $185 million in a 550,000 square foot (sf) manufacturing facility and $170 million in a 1.1-million-square-foot (msf) logistics and operations center, respectively, both in Jackson County.
Supply
Construction activity remained below the five-year norm across Atlanta. Compared to an average of nearly 6.0 msf of quarterly deliveries between 2021 and 2025, new supply totaled 2.8 msf in Q3, concentrated primarily in I-75 South and I-85 North. All 11 buildings were built on a speculative basis with 20.2% of space preleased before completion. Despite limited deliveries in recent quarters, developer confidence rose as space under construction increased to 8.4 msf at the close of Q3, the highest level since 2024. Projects under construction vary in size, although nearly half (49.2%) of the square footage is concentrated in buildings larger than 500,000 sf.
Positive occupancy gains offset vacant deliveries, keeping Atlanta’s direct vacancy rate—which excludes subleases—unchanged from the prior quarter at 7.8%. The rate remained 80 basis points (bps) below its level in Q3 2025. Two submarkets, however, recorded substantial quarterly improvements—vacancy declined by 100 bps in I-75 North and 70 bps in I-85 South.
Demand
New leasing activity reached its highest quarterly level since 2022, recording 13.5 msf in Q3, up 22.5% above Q2 volume. Three new transactions exceeding 1.0 msf each were signed by Nike, TikTok Logistics, and Google, compared to just one such transaction during the entire first half of 2026. Four additional deals exceeded 500,000 sf, bringing the total to seven transactions that accounted for 44.3% of volume but just 5.4% of leases, a higher share than in Q1 (2.7%) and Q2 (3.9%). Atlanta ranked fourth nationally for new leasing activity and was one of only four markets to exceed 10.0 msf in Q3. Year-to-date (YTD) activity reached 32.4 msf, surpassing the same period in each of the past three years.
In addition to new leasing, renewal activity increased 26.6% with nearly 5.6 msf renewed. Stitch Fix accounted for a significant share, recommitting to 925,800 sf in I-20 West, the leading submarket for renewals.
Net absorption remained positive for the fifth consecutive quarter across Atlanta at 1.8 msf. Three firms moved into spaces larger than 500,000 sf each, led by Highline Warren’s occupancy of its newly purchased 972,350-sf building in I-75 South. The Q3 total boosted YTD absorption to 8.4 msf, already exceeding the full-year total for 2025.
Rental Rates
Industrial asking rental rates continued to rise across Atlanta through Q3. The direct asking rate reached a new high of $7.79 per square foot (psf), a 3.0% increase from Q2. Growth was concentrated in I-75 North (8.5%) and I-75 South (8.4%), as lower-priced vacancies were removed from the market in I-75 North while higher-priced new supply was introduced in I-75 South.
