As metro Atlanta's office vacancy rate ticked past 28 percent — a record 173.5 million square feet sitting empty, per Bisnow Atlanta — one downtown tower spent the start of 2024 moving in the opposite direction. Real estate firms Banyan Street Capital and Oaktree Capital Management announced more than 40,000 square feet in new office leases at 191 Peachtree, the 50-story tower they bill as "the South's preeminent trophy tower."
Six leases landed at once: Integral, the longtime Atlanta development and investment firm, took 13,599 square feet. Fundraising consultancy Coxe Curry signed for 11,719 square feet. Three law firms — Daspit Law, Durham Law Group, and Mones Law — filled out much of the rest, alongside a combined 2,381 square feet split among three charitable foundations: the Tull Charitable Foundation, the R. Howard Dobbs Jr. Foundation, and the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation.
Built in 1991 to a Phillip Johnson/Burgee Architects design and renovated in 2016, 191 Peachtree spans more than 1.2 million square feet and now counts more than 20 law firms and a dozen nonprofits among its tenants. The building's grand Peachtree Street lobby holds Land of a Thousand Hills coffee and Alma Cocina, plus the Commerce Club on the 49th floor and access to the neighboring Ritz-Carlton's food and beverage program — amenities Banyan says it plans to expand further, with lobby renovations aimed at giving tenants more gathering space.
Zac Gruber, president of Banyan's office division, credited the momentum to demand that picked up in the second half of 2023 "when many competitive properties struggled." Part of the strategy is a spec-suite program offering pre-built, move-in-ready office space: two of three available suites on the 40th floor were leased as part of this round, with four more coming to market on the 37th floor. Gruber said the approach is capturing up to 30 percent of new leasing activity in the submarkets where Banyan competes hardest, across an 11-million-square-foot national portfolio.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published January 2024.
