Atlanta's most expensive street is no longer in Buckhead
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Credit: Thomas Wheatley/Axios
A relatively small stretch of Ponce de Leon Avenue — yes, Ponce — has bumped Phipps as Atlanta's most expensive street for office space, per a new study by real estate group JLL.
Why it matters: The draw of new office options outside Downtown's central business district is reshaping Atlanta's commercial real estate and prompting civic officials to rethink the future of vacant towers.
Context: The Beltline's Eastside Trail and the mixed-use mania it sparked — 725 Ponce and Ponce City Market, specifically — have helped turn the famed nightlife corridor into the country's 15th most expensive commercial street.
Of note: Those two mixed-use projects, plus the under-construction 619 Ponce, the four-story mass timber loft office building, drove those higher rents.
What they're saying: "While new office development might be limited over the short-term, it will still remain a vibrant pocket of activity across property types and will be a location that landlords and developers are motivated to invest in," Jacob Rowden of JLL told Axios.
Zoom in: In the latest study, Ponce was trailed by Spring Street in Midtown and Howell Mill Road on the Westside.
- The area around Phipps in Buckhead, which topped JLL's previous 2019 study, ranked No. 4.
By the numbers: Ponce's average asking rent in 2023 was $65.01 per square foot, with its highest hitting $75 per square foot.
- It had a 2.1% vacancy rate at the end of 2023, the second lowest of JLL's top expensive streets in the country.
Of note: This year marks the first time since 2005 that a non-Buckhead commercial corridor snagged the top spot.
- The North Atlanta community controlled half the list 20 years ago; today two of its streets made the cut. The general Midtown area makes up the rest.
Zoom out: This follows a national trend of prime office corridors migrating from central business districts post-pandemic and into "off-core peripheral urban neighborhoods," per the report.
- 54% of the country's most expensive streets were located in such peripheral areas last year, Axios D.C.'s Mimi Montgomery writes, as opposed to only 39% in 2005.