A workstation with a view

Workstations within the office space have become more of a common place in the work environment from the extreme with execuitves moving from offices to workstations, to workstations with the office view. Bill Coons of Office Interiors has laid out a good peice on daylight and productivity of a new and rising trend with the environment of the workplace.

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Not only from a cost measure, does the workstation factor into the office place, but so does employee and company moral. New and innovative work environments helps retention as well as recruitment.

Atlanta office space remains hard to fill

Atlanta's office vacancy has made it's way into the bottom third amongst US major cities with new buidlings and projects having come to market. As we are in the midst of a correction, landlords are looking for ways to cretively fill up the empty buildings.

Russell Grantham with the AJC provides good examples of projects and progress that some developers are doing to save some of what they have.

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At the Bottom for Atlanta Office Space?

The Office Market in Atlanta has been down nearing three years now and is there any end in sight? We are at a high with office vacancies since 2004 and buildings just delivered to the market. In my opinion, we'll be at the bottom until jobs start to come back. When we have a few consecutive quarters of job growth, that will be the time that we'll start seeing positive absorbtion.

A good article written by Jim Jordan with Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP, in the Atlanta Business Chronicles addresses the situation and provides some good insight on "When will Atlanta's Office Market Hit Bottom?"

Regions Bank signs letter of intent for Atlanta regional HQ

Birmingham Business Journal has reported that Regions has signed a letter of intent on moving its Atlanta headquarters to Midtown. If an agreed upon lease is executed, they will then have an intown presence along with the rest of the top seven major banks in Atlanta.

Birmingham's Regions Bank is moving its Atlanta headquarters to Midtown.

Regions Bank (NYSE: RF) – the sixth largest bank in Atlanta – has signed a letter of intent at Atlantic Center Plaza, a 24-story building on West Peachtree Street that stands in the shadow of the 50-story One Atlantic Center (formerly the IBM Tower).

Regions would lease about four floors in the building, or about 80,000 square feet.

Parent company Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has maintained its Atlanta office at One Glenlake off Georgia 400 in Sandy Springs, but it's seeking more spotlight as its competitors, including New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) push to join SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) as the city’s biggest financial players.

Regions Bank ranks sixth in Atlanta market share with $3.3 billion in deposits, behind SunTrust, Wachovia (now Wells Fargo), Bank of America, Branch Banking & Trust Corp. (NYSE: BBT) and Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) subsidiary Bank of North Georgia.

Regions is the only lender in the top seven without a major intown presence.

The others have naming rights or have their brands splashed across some of the city’s signature office towers, including SunTrust (60-story SunTrust Plaza, downtown) and BB&T (Atlantic Station).

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Atlanta Office Space (Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown) has 12.3 million sqare feet of vancany

Gertha Coffee with the AJC has a great peice outlining the massive blocks of space throughout Atlanta (Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown). AJC : Building Boom made Lots of Room

Lots of deals to be had if you are a Tenant in Atlanta. However, don't let the articles of higher vacancy and reduced rental rates mislead you. The true deals that seem to be heard on the streets are good credit tenants, they have a long term strategic focus with their company and can make long term decisions with their real estate, and it's the larger tenants that are able to take the most advantage of the market conditions.

Great Atlanta Office Space Midtown Sublease Opportunity

Great Sublease Opportunity in Midtown Atlanta. Click Atlanta Office Space to view the virtual tour.

Atlanta Office Space - Tenant's Market

Atlanta Overview
Atlanta vacancy rate rose to 16.7% across Metro Atlanta and exceeding 20% in some submarkets. The increase in vacancy has driven a decline in rental rates, thus giving tenants greater opportunity and more options to reduce their occupancy costs. Not only are landlords competing with new deliveries in some submarkets, but the additional space for sublease on the market has increased to over 3.5 million square feet, providing for aggressive deals.

The Atlanta market is only just beginning to enter a period of a few years with many maturing loans on commercial properties, in which we will see much more delinquency, leading to increasing cautiousness when negotiating lease terms.

Tenant's Market
The recession is affecting all markets and all industries. As we have continued to see unemployment numbers rise, vacancy rates have increased and rents have decreased. Landlords are willing to work with shorter lease terms to get them through the next couple years, anticipating a turn around in 2011 or 2012.

Tenants with good credit have found flexibility and many options available in the market. Though short term leases are more prevalent, a tenant can really take advantage of a soft market with securing a long term lease of seven years or more. This can be seen with tenants who are able to foresee a clear view of the long term strategy of the company, and in coordination, align their real estate needs with their strategic plan.

We see opportunity to significantly save on overall occupancy costs. There are many possibilities to upgrade the space, increase the square footage, and even move up from a class B building to a class A building. It is important to exercise caution with reevaluating your current lease, as some landlords are financially unstable.

It is necessary to engage a tenant representative for advisory services, to benchmark the tenant’s current building and market situation in order to capitalize and take advantage of the market.