Marietta Commercial Real Estate Services

Marietta is our home market. We track every lease and sale in Cobb County, but Marietta gets special attention because it's where we do the most work and know the most landlords, property owners, and decision makers.

That matters when you're looking for 8,000 square feet of office space and three buildings fit your criteria, or when you need 25,000 square feet of warehouse and the only available options are listed at rates nobody's actually paying. Market knowledge means knowing which landlords will negotiate and which ones won't, which buildings have issues you can't see from the marketing photos, and which spaces are about to come available before they hit LoopNet.

Marietta's commercial market splits into three categories: office space concentrated in East Cobb and along I-75, industrial space clustered near Dobbins Air Reserve Base and the I-75 corridor, and medical office space scattered throughout residential areas serving local patient populations. The market you're in determines what questions you should be asking.

The Marietta Office Market: East Cobb and I-75 Corridor

Marietta has roughly 4.1 million square feet of office inventory spread across 60 buildings. Most of it sits in two areas: East Cobb along Johnson Ferry Road and Roswell Road, and the I-75 corridor near Delk Road and Windy Hill.

Office rates run $18 to $26 per square foot depending on building class, location, and how badly the landlord needs to fill vacancy. Class B office in older East Cobb buildings runs $18 to $22. Class A office in newer buildings near I-75 runs $24 to $26. That's $6 to $12 per square foot cheaper than comparable space in Alpharetta or Sandy Springs.

The East Cobb office market serves professional services, small corporate offices, and local businesses that don't need interstate visibility or structured parking. These are two-story garden-style office buildings with surface parking, built in the 1980s and 1990s, functional but not impressive. Employees like them because the commute from residential East Cobb is easy. CFOs like them because the rent is $100,000 cheaper per year than the alternatives.

The I-75 corridor serves distribution companies, regional offices, and businesses that need visibility and highway access. These are larger buildings, better finishes, more corporate feel. Rates are higher but you're paying for location and infrastructure.

The mistake most office tenants make is searching by square footage and price without understanding submarket differences. A 10,000 square foot space in East Cobb at $20 per square foot might suit a local accounting firm perfectly. The same space at the same rate near I-75 might be a worse building with deferred maintenance. Market knowledge matters.

The Marietta Industrial Market: I-75 Corridor and Dobbins Area

Marietta has 3.6 million square feet of industrial inventory. Most of it clusters near Dobbins Air Reserve Base and along the I-75 corridor between Delk Road and South Marietta Parkway. Warehouse rates run $9 to $12 per square foot triple net for buildings in the 20,000 to 50,000 square foot range.

The Dobbins area offers older industrial buildings, 18 to 24 foot clear heights, mix of dock-high and grade-level doors. These buildings serve local distributors, contractors, and light manufacturing. Rates run $9 to $10 per square foot. The I-75 corridor has newer product, better truck access, 28 to 32 foot clear heights. Rates run $11 to $12 per square foot.

Marietta industrial competes directly with Kennesaw, which has more supply and slightly lower rates. A tenant looking at a 30,000 square foot warehouse in South Marietta should also be looking at buildings three miles west in Kennesaw where the same space costs $1 per square foot less. The question is whether Marietta's location justifies the premium or whether Kennesaw's lower cost and better highway access makes more sense.

We had a distribution client last year looking for 40,000 square feet. They were set on Marietta because their existing facility was here. We showed them three buildings in South Marietta at $11.50 to $12 per square foot. Then we showed them two buildings in Kennesaw at $10 to $10.50. Same specs, better truck access, $60,000 less over a five-year lease. They stayed in Marietta anyway because their operations team didn't want to deal with the move and employee pushback. That's fine. But at least they made an informed decision instead of assuming Marietta was the only option.

The Medical Office Reality: Scattered Inventory and Local Patient Bases

Marietta medical office space doesn't cluster the way it does on Pill Hill in Sandy Springs. Instead, it's scattered throughout residential areas where patient populations live. Small medical office buildings, 10,000 to 30,000 square feet, serving primary care, pediatrics, dental, and specialty practices drawing from local neighborhoods.

Medical rates in Marietta run $24 to $30 per square foot full service depending on building quality and location. That's $4 to $8 per square foot less than Pill Hill but you're not getting hospital proximity or referral networks. You're getting local patient access.

A pediatric practice looking at Marietta medical office space isn't competing with Pill Hill. They're competing with other East Cobb and West Cobb locations for the same patient population. The location decision is about where the patients live and how far they'll drive, not about being close to a hospital.

We worked with a dental practice last year evaluating two East Cobb locations. One was $28 per square foot in a newer building with better visibility. The other was $24 per square foot in an older building set back from the road. They mapped their existing patient base. Seventy percent lived within two miles of the cheaper location. They took the cheaper space, saved $48,000 over the lease term, and patient visits didn't drop because visibility didn't matter once people knew where they were.

What Separates Us in the Marietta Market

We're based here. We track every transaction. We know the buildings, the landlords, and the recent comps. That matters when you're trying to figure out whether $22 per square foot is a good rate for 5,000 square feet of East Cobb office space or whether the landlord down the street just leased comparable space at $19.

Most commercial tenants search online, tour a few buildings, and sign the first lease that looks reasonable. That works fine until you're three years into a five-year term and you realize you overpaid by $80,000 and the expansion rights you thought you had don't actually work the way the landlord's broker explained them.

We represent one side. Yours. We don't collect fees from landlords. We don't split commissions with listing brokers. We work exclusively for tenants and buyers, which means we negotiate knowing our client's outcome is the only outcome that matters.

If you're evaluating office space, warehouse facilities, or medical office in Marietta and you want someone who knows which landlords negotiate and which buildings have issues, we should talk.