The first office tenant will be moving into the long-vacant Tower Square in Midtown Atlanta since AT&T left, prompting the building's owner, a firm led by billionaire Carl Icahn, to renovate the structure.
Oxos, a developer of portable x-ray scanners, leased 40,000 square feet at the 45-story building at 675 W. Peachtree St., according to CBRE. Privately held Oxos plans to leave its headquarters at 1100 Peachtree St. at an undisclosed date. Oxos’ current office is 22,760 square feet.
For Icahn Enterprises, the owner of Tower Square, the lease represents the end of a long wait after AT&T vacated in 2020. The new owners renovated the structure and renamed it Tower Square in a bid to change its image from an early 1980s office building that was originally the headquarters for regional telephone utility BellSouth.
Oxos selected Tower Square for its new office because of “its large, column-free floor plates, direct in-building access to the North Avenue MARTA [rail station] and a recently completed amenity program,” according to CBRE.
“Companies are being more selective about where and how they occupy space and this lease reflects the demand we are seeing for well‑located buildings that combine scale, connectivity and a comprehensive amenity offering in Midtown,” said Jessica Doyle, senior vice president at CBRE.
Tenants have access to amenities at The Exchange, a 75,000-square-foot retail center anchored by Planet Fitness, Five Iron Golf and multiple restaurant options, and a 28,000-square-foot outdoor plaza.
Tower Square also benefits from its location in one of the most-coveted office districts in Atlanta. Midtown Atlanta features dozens of restaurants and bars, luxury hotels and cultural amenities. Fox Theatre, a historic music venue, sits next to Tower Square.
The average asking rent for office space in Midtown Atlanta is $45.92 per square foot, higher than the market-wide average of $29.98, according to CoStar data.
For the record
Doyle and Graham Little at CBRE represented Icahn Enterprises on the lease. Chris Campbell at Cecil & Campbell Advisors represented Oxos. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.