Rising from the ashes of a dead suburban office campus, Medley is opening the first phase of its mixed-use district with its speculative office space fully leased, Toro Development Company announced today. Medley is the first spec office project in metro Atlanta to open fully leased in more than a decade. The last building to go from 100% spec to 100% leased was 8000 Avalon Blvd., the 228,893-square-foot office building within Avalon, the 86-acre mixed-use destination Toro developed and opened in Alpharetta in 2014.

 

Boehringer Ingelheim took 73,000 square feet for its U.S. Animal Health headquarters and moved 500 employees in August. Brightree, a software platform used to manage clinical, billing and business operations for the healthcare industry, has leased 17,751 square feet. First American Bank & Trust will occupy 3,290 square feet. The remaining space in the building is leased to a to-be-named tenant.  

 

"Flight to quality' was one of the prevailing post-Covid office narratives. And yet, we saw trophy towers with luxury amenities in top office markets open unoccupied," said Mark Toro, founder and chief vision officer of Toro Development Company. "This tells us location and quality aren't the only things that matter. Energy is the real difference maker in creating a commute-worthy workplace experience. We wish we had built more office at Medley given the demand."

 

Approximately 6.7 million square feet of new office space has been delivered in Metro Atlanta since 2019, and 29% of that pipeline is still available, according to Stream Realty Partners. Toro said the difference comes down to what surrounds the office: “In a word, community. A walkable mixed-use district with an exceptional street-level experience and gatherings that bring people together.”

 

Toro saw this first at Avalon in 2014. The Alpharetta mixed-use community’s 582,000 square feet of office space remains 98% occupied and still commands rents more than 80% above market today. In a 2025 report, Cushman & Wakefield named Avalon one of five metro Atlanta office clusters that outperformed their submarkets and the broader metro, driven by proximity to the amenities companies use to recruit and keep talent.

 

Toro saw this again at Colony Square. When his team acquired the urban office district in 2015, he raised office rents by 26% overnight because of the promise of mixed-use to come. 

Toro calls this The Third Place Effect. Offices, apartments, retailers and hotels inside mixed-use communities where people choose to spend time earn a measurable premium in rents and valuations. Medley applies the same model in Johns Creek, surrounding its office space with 145,000 square feet of walkable retail and restaurants, 881 residences, a 150-key boutique hotel and a 25,000-square-foot Plaza programmed with 100 events a year.

 

Medley's lease-up stands out in a submarket still carrying significant vacancy. North Fulton's Class A office vacancy remains elevated at approximately 31%, with Johns Creek’s vacancy at 18%, according to Stream Realty Partners, which led office leasing for the project. 

 

“Atlanta’s vacancy numbers tell only part of the story. Companies have plenty of available space to consider, both intown and in the suburbs, but far fewer options that combine a modern workplace with walkable restaurants, retail and gathering places that create community and employee pride,” said Bryan Heller of Stream Realty Partners. “Medley broke ground with a 100% spec office component and we reached full occupancy through leasing during construction because employers recognized the value of that environment. With the office construction pipeline effectively empty, I expect that demand to extend to nearby office buildings and parks within an easy walk of demand generators like Medley. We’ve seen that halo effect around Avalon over the past ten years: the energy of a great mixed-use destination strengthens the office market immediately walkable around it.”

 

Prior to Medley, State Farm occupied the 43-acre office park with its regional operations campus before relocating to Atlanta’s Perimeter in 2013. One of the 1990s-era buildings was demolished, while the other 112,000-square-foot building was renovated and integrated into the broader Medley community. In place of parking lots, a vibrant mixed-use experience is now just steps away from employee desks, offering coffee shops, lunchtime dining and shopping, outdoor yoga classes and happy hour gatherings – places to work from anywhere and create a fulfilling workweek lifestyle.  

 

Cushman & Wakefield represented all three tenants: Travis Jackson and Addison Meriwether for Boehringer Ingelheim; Clinton McKellar and Sydney Boyden for Brightree; and Kirk Diamond, April Parrish, Erin Smith and Tim Wright for First American Bank & Trust.

 

Dead office campuses beleaguer cities across the country. Toro tore down 350,000 square feet of vacant suburban office to make way for Medley. The result offers a model for what those sites can become: town centers that command top rents and pull new investment into the surrounding community.

At Avalon, nearby residential property values grew 191% over the past decade, compared with 91% citywide, according to a 2026 KB Advisory Group analysis. Toro expects to see the same halo effect take place around Medley in Johns Creek.