Even the most avid OTP hater could find these numbers impressive.
The Atlanta-based research team for Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate services firm, has released a report titled “Cumberland Growth In Full Swing” that paints Cobb County’s southeastern-most commercial zone as a boomtown buoyed by professional sports, a torrent of mixed-use investment, and access to transportation that doesn’t involve trains.
By analysts’ estimation, Cumberland has “solidified itself as a coveted enclave for corporate expansion” with a “new ecosystem of amenities,” thanks largely to the debut of the Braves’ Truist Park in 2017 and the maturation of the 2.3-million-square-foot The Battery around it.
Almost 20 percent of all new office leasing in metro Atlanta occurred in Cumberland in 2022.
Last year’s 1.5 million square feet in office leasing activity was a 50.6-percent jump over the previous year, and a 14.5-percent increase over the area’s five-year average, according to the Cushman & Wakefield study.
Since the Braves arrived in Cobb, every year except pandemic-impacted 2020 has seen more than 1 million square feet of office leasing activity in Cumberland, per the report.
Cushman & Wakefield
Meanwhile, Cumberland’s roughly 30,000 population has swelled by 50 percent since 2000—nearly twice the rate of Cobb County overall—with about 40 percent of those residents being millennials.
Working in Cumberland’s favor is proximity to intown Atlanta, access to nature near the Chattahoochee River, and in terms of office space, relative affordability ($28.19 per square foot) for the metro, Cushman & Wakefield researchers found.
Specifically in the Cumberland Community Improvement District—an area of 6 ½ square miles where U.S. Highway 41 and interstates 75 and 285 converge—perks attracting new talent include “ample free parking” and a “robust infrastructure network comprised of four major interchanges,” per the report, which could sound like nails on chalkboards for local urbanists.
On the flipside, as researchers note, nearly 800 acres of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area falls within Cumberland.
Major office deliveries in the Cumberland area since 2017, when the Braves arrived. Cushman & Wakefield
Cumberland’s largest lease of 2022 is expected to be a boon for businesses around The Battery.
Truist Financial Corporation plans to eventually locate more than 1,000 high-wage jobs in a 250,000-square-foot building that’s under construction beside the baseball stadium now. Truist will mark the fourth Fortune 500 company to stake a business unit or global headquarters at the mixed-use district, following Comcast, Papa John’s, and elevator company TKE.
Alongside the office activity, nearly 625,000 square feet of more retail space and thousands of apartments are planned around the Cumberland CID, which would translate to another 10,600 residents in coming years, Cushman & Wakefield noted.
Courtesy of Cumberland CID
The color-coded loop of specific Cumberland Sweep sections, along with a possible pedestrian bridge (dotted dark blue) and future extensions. Courtesy of Cumberland CID
On the transportation front, the $100-million Cumberland Sweep project, a three-mile multimodal loop with a planned autonomous shuttle component, is expected to start construction in fall 2024 and open three years later.
The report found that 15 buildings totaling 4.5 million square feet are planned or under construction in Cumberland now, with uses including hospital, office, retail, and multifamily.
Specifically in The Battery, private investment has exceeded $1 billion and is projected to pack on another $700 million over the next two years, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s findings.
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