AT&T To Open Huge New Call Center Outside Atlanta

Cousins Properties is close to landing telecommunications giant AT&T for a big new call center in Central Perimeter.

AT&T is in final negotiations with Cousins to lease 166K SF at Northpark Town Center, a three-building office campus off Abernathy Road near Georgia 400, sources familiar with the transaction told Bisnow. 

The news builds on a hint dropped during Cousins’ Q3 earnings call. During the Friday call, Cousins Executive Vice President of Operations Richard Hickson said the firm was “in advanced lease negotiations with a Fortune 50 company to lease 166K SF at the property on a long-term basis.”

Hickson said the deal, once completed, would add incremental occupancy of nearly 12% for the 1.4M SF office park.

Bisnow reported earlier this year that AT&T had been seeking to expand into the Dunwoody, Sandy Springs and Brookhaven nexus for a call center.

A spokesperson for Cousins declined to comment. AT&T didn’t respond to multiple messages seeking comment as of press time. 

This will be the latest office expansion for AT&T, which had been reversing its office footprint consolidation over the past few years. 

Last year, AT&T signed a lease for nearly 206K SF at the 1055 and 1057 Lenox Park Blvd. buildings in the Lenox Park office complex near Buckhead. Two years ago, AT&T signed a 120K SF lease for 1277 Lenox Park. 

The AT&T deal would be welcome in the Central Perimeter, which has seen record vacancies in the past year. In the third quarter, the area’s vacancy rate remained just above 28%, Colliers reported. 

Cousins leased 551K SF in the third quarter, its second-highest volume in three years. During its quarterly earnings call, Cousins CEO Colin Connolly said he believed the overall office market was reaching an inflection point with a thinning construction pipeline and more return-to-office mandates. 

Connolly added that leasing activity from West Coast and New York City-based financial services and some large-cap technology companies was increasing relocation efforts into the Sun Belt region.

“While not necessarily full corporate relocations, they are significant hubs in some cases and highlight growth away from high-tax in high-regulation states,” he said.

Connolly also said the recent spate of corporate layoffs nationwide wouldn’t immediately impact the outlook for the office market, as many of the jobs eliminated were hangovers from rampant hiring during the pandemic and were remote roles.

“Simply said, the tailwinds from the accelerating return to office remain greater than the impact of corporate layoffs, from our vantage point,” he said.