The power spinoff of General Electric is moving its Atlanta workforce to a new — and much smaller — office space near The Battery in Cobb County.
GE Vernova, which is set to fully separate from its parent company next year, announced this week it has leased 77,000 square feet within 600 Galleria Parkway through 2036, according to a news release. The company will vacate its current offices at 4200 Wildwood Parkway in Marietta as part of the relocation, which will reduce GE Vernova’s metro Atlanta office footprint by nearly 70%.
The move leaves the Marietta office building, where GE’s power division currently leased about 256,000 square feet, without a tenant, according to online real estate publication Bisnow. The building’s owner, Florida-based Workspace Property Trust, did not respond to a request for comment.
The new lease is a boon for 600 Galleria Parkway, which is one of the five towers that comprise The Galleria office park in Cobb County. The property’s owner, Sandy Springs-based Piedmont Office Realty Trust, touted the deal for filling the last remaining large block of vacancy within the building, bringing the 2.1-million square foot complex to 90% leased.
Piedmont CEO Brent Smith said in a third-quarter earnings call that The Galleria “is an example of how our amenitized, well-located, high-quality assets continue to lead their respective submarkets with leasing activity,”
Roughly 400 employees will occupy the new offices at The Galleria, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.
The announcement comes during a dry spell for office leasing activity across metro Atlanta. More than 30% of all Atlanta-area office space was either vacant or available for sublease at the end of September, which real estate services firm CBRE said is a record high for the region.
The shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to loom over the region’s office market, with companies years later still grappling with hybrid and remote work. In addition, high interest rates, construction costs and a tight refinancing market have further ramped up pressure on office landlords overseeing half-empty portfolios.
Boston-based GE announced two years ago it planned to divide its company into thirds, with each resulting public company taking over a different division. GE Vernova, which is currently called GE Power, will finish its split next year and begin publicly trading under the stock ticker GEV. The company will be based in Cambridge, Mass.
The other two companies are Chicago-based GE HealthCare, the firm’s medical technology division, and Cincinnati-based GE Aerospace, which focuses on aviation.
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