Companies tied to the data center ecosystem leased more than 9 million square feet of industrial floor space across metro Atlanta between 2022 and 2025, a volume the Atlanta Journal-Constitution compared to six Lenox Square malls.
The demand comes from the supply chain that surrounds data center construction and operation rather than from the computing halls themselves. Contractors, electrical equipment distributors, cooling system suppliers, cable and conduit vendors and hardware integrators all require warehouse space near active construction sites to stage material.
That staging requirement has become substantial because of the equipment lead times involved. Transformers, switchgear, generators and chillers now carry order to delivery windows measured in quarters or years, which forces developers to take delivery early and hold components until installation.
Georgia's data center pipeline explains the scale. The state has 43 operating facilities with combined capacity near 2,968 megawatts, alongside 134 planned projects that would add roughly 16,316 megawatts. Active development spans Douglas, DeKalb, Coweta, Bartow and Henry counties, and Microsoft has a campus under construction in Douglasville in Douglas County.
Georgia data centers have also been filling as quickly as they are completed, which sustains the construction cycle and the warehouse demand attached to it.
The warehouse absorption is a measurable second order effect of the buildout, showing up in industrial real estate statistics rather than in power or land use filings. It also competes for the same distribution space that traditional logistics tenants use across the metro market.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution - https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/08/companies-tied-to-data-centers-lease-record-amount-of-atlanta-warehouse-space/