Big-Box Leasing Returns To Atlanta's Industrial Market

Companies seeking massive warehouse space have come back to Atlanta’s industrial market after smaller tenants last year dominated the sector.

Major logistics companies, including Amazon, Pactra and GXO Logistics, each leased at least 500K SF of warehouse and distribution space in Metro Atlanta during the second quarter, according to a new Savills report. Amazon alone inked a 1.2M SF lease with PNK Group USA for its facility at 1305 Highway 42 S. in Henry County, one of the largest single industrial leases this year, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.

Overall, large distribution center tenants leased a total of 4.6M SF in the second quarter in Metro Atlanta, the most big-box activity since 2022, “reinforcing the role of large-format requirements in driving the market,” according to a CBRE report. 

These same tenants, which can quickly move the needle with industrial fundamentals given their sheer size, were largely absent from leasing space in 2025. The renewed activity has helped to decrease the supply of empty warehouse space in Atlanta, while smaller tenants backed away from leasing activity.

“Bulk is back, for sure,” CBRE First Vice President Courtney Oldenburg told Bisnow.

If you’re a big-box landlord, “you’re feeling pretty good,” she said.

Last year, companies leasing 50K SF or fewer led Atlanta's industrial market. But last quarter, activity for smaller spaces declined. Landlords of spaces spanning 100K SF or fewer tallied 1.4M SF of negative net absorption, the lowest level in three years, according to CBRE.

Overall Q2 leasing activity jumped to 18.3M SF, up from 16.7M SF in Q1, leading to a total of more than 66M SF over the past four quarters, according to a King Industrial Realty report. King Industrial Realty President Sim Doughtie said this was the most leasing activity in Atlanta in the past three years. The activity included 16 transactions of at least 500K SF by Fortune 500 companies.

Companies had held off on inking large industrial leases under the auspices of higher interest rates, President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies and, more recently, the on-off war with Iran, which has threatened cargo and oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Doughtie said. 

But now, they are done waiting for a more favorable economic outlook.

“I think there’s just some acceptance. This is just how we live,” Oldenburg said. “And we have customers that we need to service, and we need to distribute our product.”

Doughtie said the rise in large-scale leasing activity has prompted developers to gear up new projects. According to CBRE, developers were underway with 9.4M SF of new warehouses in Atlanta, up from 7.6M SF in the first quarter. That construction activity was focused on big-box distribution projects, Doughtie said. 

“Gains are being driven by bulk transactions and ownership strategies, while smaller and older inventory continues to lag and contribute less to overall demand,” according to the CBRE report. 

Subham Nandy, a senior associate with Avison Young in Atlanta, said smaller tenant activity is returning to more historical norms, still feeding on the data center growth fueled by the artificial intelligence boom. Nandy said smaller tenants typically run businesses that supply building materials and equipment needed for data center development.

“If you call slowing down returning to a normal pace, then yeah. The baseline was not the norm,” Nandy said. “The economy is growing. There’s a lot of demand on the AI trade. That’s propping up the economy.”

Oldenburg said smaller tenants are also facing a shock of increasing rental rates, creating hesitation in leasing new space. The average triple-net asking rent for industrial space rose 2% since the start of 2026 to $7.76 per SF. That number is also up 8% year-over-year, according to CBRE, outpacing the national industrial rent growth of 2.1%. 

“Rates have gone up significantly, and that hits differently on a smaller business than it does on a big-box user,” she said.