Atlanta warehouses boomed after COVID, then cooled. They’re hot again.

By midyear, metro Atlanta’s industrial sector was on pace for its best year since 2021 and 2022 when the region set records for warehouse leasing, according to data from real estate services firm JLL. Amazon provided an exclamation point in June by signing the largest lease the Atlanta area has seen so far this year, signaling that big warehouse users are once again willing to make moves.

Logistics is big business in Georgia, a transportation hub for the Southeast U.S. that boasts the world’s busiest airport, an enviable network of rail and freeways and bustling ports in Savannah and Brunswick. One in nine jobs in Georgia is tied to its logistics industry, according to state data.

While any trend echoing the post-COVID-19 warehouse boom is welcome economic news, it also carries with it some heartburn over what followed.

So many warehouses were built in metro Atlanta after 2020 to address strained supply chains and e-commerce demand that the market became oversupplied, leaving several projects to sit empty. A glut of supply combined with tariff-induced economic uncertainty to form a cocktail that slowed down leasing, creating what’s been dubbed a post-COVID hangover.

Real estate experts, however, now say the Atlanta area is better prepared for an uptick in demand while avoiding unsustainable growth.

“I feel like we’re in the right space to meet the future demand that is there,” said Lisa Jebodhsingh, senior director of research for JLL. “We’re not going too crazy, but we are going to be ready.”

Credit: Courtesy of JLL

Credit: Courtesy of JLL

Metro Atlanta ended June with about 9% of its warehouse space vacant, according to JLL. That’s nearly triple the amount of available space from mid-2021, but it’s closer to historic norms for the region.

New warehouse construction waned in response to vacancy rates starting to climb, which is a typical supply-and-demand dynamic.

Only about 7 million square feet of warehouse space was under construction at the end of June in the Atlanta area compared to more than 50 million square feet during the post-COVID peak, according to data from real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Reed Davis, who leads JLL’s industrial division in Atlanta, said increased leasing to absorb the region’s available space is something brokers have been anticipating for months.

“We need that momentum to continue … and we’re going to have an inventory ready for a lot of these bigger users,” he said.

Big deals

A large lease in isolation can make a temporary splash, but a string of giant deals can spur others to take action.

That’s starting to come to fruition in metro Atlanta after large industrial users have started to come out of the woodwork, said Lisa Pittman, executive managing director in Cushman & Wakefield’s Atlanta office.

“Big box demand has come back with a vengeance,” she said, adding that Atlanta was among five markets to lease more than 10 million square feet of industrial space during the first half of 2026.

Since November, there have been half a dozen 1 million-square-foot deals — either leases or sales — in the Atlanta market, according to Reed. Amazon is responsible for the most recent one, leasing 1.2 million square feet at a warehouse recently built by PNK Group in Henry County.

“We’re in the early planning stages for a new distribution center in McDonough,” Amazon spokesperson Austin Stowe said in a statement, “which will help get customers faster delivery and more selection on their favorite products once completed.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

The actions by the world’s largest e-commerce company is “a leading indicator,” said Jack Chapman, development manager in Atlanta for real estate firm Transwestern.

“If they’re growing, that’s a good sign and means the consumer is consuming,” he said.

Investor interest

Positive leasing trends tend to spur properties to trade hands as investors smell opportunity.

Transwestern in May sold the 266,000-square-foot Clayton Technology Center to CenterPoint Properties for nearly $43 million, which Chapman said was the result of a bidding war.

“With multiple bidders trying to buy an asset, that’s a really healthy sign for Atlanta’s industrial market,” he said.

Credit: Courtesy of Transwestern Investments

Credit: Courtesy of Transwestern Investments

Basis Industrial, a Florida-based firm founded in 2022, has also been attracted to the Atlanta market, spending more than $89 million in May to purchase a portfolio of 25 smaller industrial properties. The buildings, which are called shallow-bay warehouses, focus on smaller tenants.

Anthony Scavo, president and managing partner at Basis Industrial, said the Atlanta area’s warehouse users are diversified and bolstered by Georgia’s ports.

“We just like to really serve that niche because it really keeps us diverse in our tenant base,” he said. “We’re not worried about big dips or valleys.”

Credit: Courtesy of Basis Industrial

Credit: Courtesy of Basis Industrial

Basis now owns about 1.2 million square feet across the Atlanta area, but Scavo aims to double or triple that footprint, adding that his firm currently has about 1 million square feet under contract.

‘Keep pushing further’

More demand also starts to spur new construction as companies vie to be first in line to provide the next generation of warehouse space.

Buchanan Capital Partners announced a partnership with Crow Holdings Development in mid-July to build nearly 400,000 square feet of industrial space in Bartow County. The companies said it aims to tap into a bustling industrial corridor along I-75 northwest of Atlanta anchored by Qcells’ solar panel factory and a newly operational battery plant by Hyundai and SK On.

Atlanta-based developer Stonemont Financial Group is pursuing early-stage plans to build nearly 569,000 square feet of new warehouse space near Winder, according to a state filing. The firm also announced earlier this week it paid $1 billion to buy a 38-warehouse portfolio across 10 states from private equity giant Blackstone.

Will Peace, assistant vice president of Stonemont, said it’s been heartening to see bulk leasing activity rebound, saying Atlanta is an appealing market because of its long-stretching interstate corridors.

“In Atlanta, you can kind of go one exit out,” he said. “You can keep pushing further and further out of town.”

Credit: Courtesy of Stonemont

Credit: Courtesy of Stonemont

Pittman said it can be “a little bit pioneering” when developers search farther from Atlanta’s core for industrial project sites, but she said leasing trends are robust enough for those projects to pass muster.

She also said it’s a good sign for the industrial market that inflation, overseas conflicts, tariff announcements and spiking oil prices haven’t seemed to slow companies from making decisions like they did the past few years.

“It kind of seems like disruption is the new normal,” she said.