Driven by demand from large cloud service providers and social media companies, data center leasing activity in Metro Atlanta set new records in 2021, according to a new report from CBRE.

Metro Atlanta had a record-70.42 MW of data center absorption in 2021, a majority of which came during the second half of the year when 55.5 MW was absorbed. Last year’s total absorption represented a 287.3% increase from 2020, when just 18.2 MW of data center space was absorbed during the year. The market’s absorption – a measure of net leasing activity – jumped from seventh to second year-over-year among the 17 data center markets that CBRE tracks.

Supply continued to be an inhibitor for growth in the Atlanta data center market with vacancy decreasing from 14.5% (23.8 MW) to a record-low 8.3% (19.0 MW) year-over-year. However, this should be alleviated by the 160.5 MW currently under construction.

“In 2021, we saw an explosion of data center activity in Atlanta, and 2022 shows no sign of activity slowing down,” said Tim Huffman, Executive Vice President with CBRE’s Data Center Solutions in Atlanta. “Expansions and new projects by hyperscale users and colocation operators are driving new growth. The west side of town in Douglas County continues to see projects landing there and the south side of town has quickly become the prime emerging growth submarket.”