Newell Brands has signed a lease for 180,000 square feet of office space in the Queen building in Sandy Springs for its new headquarters.
Newell Brands, which includes Rubbermaid, is relocating its headquarters from within Sandy Springs to the new space, which will house the company’s executive team and its corporate employees.
“Newell’s decision to stay in Sandy Springs shows that our location, ease of access, and quality of life affirms the Perimeter’s position as the leading market for businesses to expand and grow,” Sandy Springs Perimeter Chamber President Adam Forrand told Rough Draft.
The agreement was the largest office lease in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter since 2018, according to Cushman & Wakefield Atlanta Research. Its news release said that Building & Land Technology has signed 361,133 square feet of new, expansion, and renewal leasing deals in the last 12 months at its King and Queen buildings in Concourse Office Park.
“We are thrilled that Newell Brands has decided to keep its headquarters in Sandy Springs,” Mayor Rusty Paul said. “We have several programs designed to encourage the retention and expansion of existing businesses, and the incentives we have put in place to foster a pro-business community are clearly working.”
Other transactions at the King and Queen buildings over the past year include leases with NICE Systems, IMA Financial Group, Snellings Walters, and Atlanticus, according to the release. Occupancy at the Queen building is over 92 percent. The King building has the top two penthouse floors remaining to lease, with unobstructed panoramic views of Atlanta. Another 140,000-square-foot contiguous block of available space also remains open to lease.
“While the impact of commercial lease renewals has yet to be fully felt, this new lease affirms the importance of location, location, location. Sandy Springs and the Perimeter communities remain to be the best location in Southeast for companies to stay, move to, or expand within,” Forrand said.
Class A office products have been 75.4 percent of the 23.2 million square feet of new leasing activity in Metro Atlanta since 2021, or 17.5 million square feet. Cushman & Wakefield reported that the lease with Newell Brands marks the fifth new lease over 100,000 square feet in Q2 to date.
Forrand said the worry and concern about empty office space is appropriate as consistent patterns across employers for in-person and hybrid schedules have yet to be seen. He said this is particularly true as large employers make office consolidation decisions regarding corporate hub and spoke locations.
“While these are business and economic decisions, there is no doubt that Sandy Springs and the Perimeter communities’ quality of life and ease of access remain important criteria in the decision-making process,” he said.
Cushman & Wakefield represented all parties in the negotiations for the lease with the global consumer products company.
