Atlanta Urban Office Districts Shine, Downtown Leads Net Absorption, Suburban Districts Lag (Buckhead: leasing, prices)

[jsvh]

Atlanta urban office districts shine, with new projects and big leases | Atlanta Business Chronicle

The glossy office towers of Atlanta’s urban districts continued to shine last year, posting almost 800,000 square feet of total net absorption.

Rents at top urban office properties in the city’s central business district climbed to $34.89 per foot — a 15 percent jump over the past 18 months and a historic high, according to a new report from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

For suburban buildings, the picture wasn’t nearly as bright.

...

Downtown, meanwhile, led all of Atlanta with 452,682 square feet of total net absorption, according to new data from Jones Lang LaSalle. Buckhead was positive by just 9,141 square feet, a reflection that more leasing activity was centered in other parts of the city.

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In all, the central business district posted 797,069 square feet in absorption versus negative 317,000 square feet in suburban Atlanta. Net absorption for all of metro Atlanta finished the year positive, according to JLL.

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[primaltech]

Midtown and Buckhead are suburbs of Downtown, technically speaking, and historically speaking. So I mean it kind of all depends on where you draw the line and define suburb and not suburb, and they don't appear to be defining their terms here.

Historically everything outside of Downtown was developed as a streetcar suburb or an automobile suburb of Atlanta. And I think Midtown is doing pretty well as a suburb.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Midtown and Buckhead are suburbs of Downtown, technically speaking, and historically speaking. So I mean it kind of all depends on where you draw the line and define suburb and not suburb, and they don't appear to be defining their terms here.

Historically everything outside of Downtown was developed as a streetcar suburb or an automobile suburb of Atlanta. And I think Midtown is doing pretty well as a suburb.

Regardless, Downtown proper had the strongest showing in 2018 and quasi-suburban places like Buckhead were still pretty weak even though it got lumped into "urban" districts. Downtown had more net absorption than the rest of the metro combined.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Regardless, Downtown proper had the strongest showing in 2018 and quasi-suburban places like Buckhead were still pretty weak even though it got lumped into "urban" districts. Downtown had more net absorption than the rest of the metro combined.

And for a good reason - it had much further to go. Nonetheless, it’s great that downtown is experiences success!

[ATLTJL]

Midtown and Buckhead are suburbs of Downtown

Do you think they would use that definition? Surely they wouldn't split hairs that much and use the term "suburban" for areas outside the city limits....right?

[back2atl]

Glad to see the momentum downtown!

Not sure why it’s needed to bash other areas...we’re all in this Atlanta thing together, like it or not.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Do you think they would use that definition? Surely they wouldn't split hairs that much and use the term "suburban" for areas outside the city limits....right?

It's city-data, people split hairs and have knock down drag out fights over the population density of a block.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Do you think they would use that definition? Surely they wouldn't split hairs that much and use the term "suburban" for areas outside the city limits....right?

I mean... have you ever been to Buckhead? It's not what I'd exactly call urban. And Midtown sort of is. Though it has fairly suburban bones.

I'm just noting, Atlanta city limits are fairly arbitrary.

Anyway, proceed with another jsvh stuck-record-opinion-promoting, everyone-else-bashing thread, that we totally needed yet another of here.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by back2atl

Glad to see the momentum downtown!

Not sure why it’s needed to bash other areas...we’re all in this Atlanta thing together, like it or not.

While I don't actually want to gloat over commercial loss in suburban and exurban areas (much to the potential surprise of some here), this information is definitely a direct rebuttal to notions of Downtown, and even Midtown, somehow being obsolete from a planning perspective. This is an idea I've run up against in quite a few places, this board included. Particularly with things like transit planning & the validity of the MMPT, to get specific.

The feeling I've seen is that, because of Downtown's (more recent) historic development issues, it shouldn't be treated as much a target for core transit projects as, say, Buckhead or Armour. Both being farther north, and closer to the other large commercial nodes in Perimeter & Cumberland than Downtown is.

That's despite the geographic centrality of downtown within both the metro, and the metro's transportation system, and that downtown has more immediate access to jobs than, say, Armour would. I swear I'm not trying to turn this into another transportation discussion thread, and I'll stop here and not carry on about that aspect, but I did want to provide a specific example.

Really, that mentality is not limited to transportation, and other policies also get effected by the idea of where the 'economic center of gravity' for the metro is. For a while now it's been felt that this ECG was destined to continue moving north, leaving the central city ever more obsolete, or on the side-lines in metro planning. There were plenty of personal reasons to drive this view, but none the less there was some legitimacy to it given ongoing development patterns.

With Downtown's strong renewed performance, and Midtown's continued growth, though, I think that trend is starting to change. I don't know if the ECG has stalled in its northern movement, let alone if it's started drifting south, but it does feel as if it's getting there. There's land available in the southern parts of the city, and, as demand continues to mount with limited opportunities to satisfy it, the prices are starting to become right to overcome barriers to developing that way. Heck, we knew this already given the efforts to develop the Gulch and redevelop Underground, but having some more metrics to show that is steadying.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I mean... have you ever been to Buckhead? It's not what I'd exactly call urban. And Midtown sort of is. Though it has fairly suburban bones.

I'm just noting, Atlanta city limits are fairly arbitrary.

Anyway, proceed with another jsvh stuck-record-opinion-promoting, everyone-else-bashing thread, that we totally needed yet another of here.

Failing to see how the Midtown commercial core is sorta-suburban (and let's not use Midtown Manhattan or Chicago Loop as examples.) Midtown has walkable blocks, with a few remaining super blocks, but the area is filling in creating more street-level engagement and activity that lasts past 5pm.