Cisco Opens 62K SF Atlanta Hub Amid Layoffs, Industry Turmoil

As upheaval rocks the technology sector, including its own large round of layoffs, tech giant Cisco Systems on Tuesday officially opened a $41M collaboration center in Midtown Atlanta.

Cisco’s new office spans 62K SF, a company spokesperson told Bisnow, despite market reports from when it signed the lease in October 2021 indicating it would occupy nearly 94K SF in the 21-story Coda office tower. 

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera, and a host of other Cisco executives and economic development officials crowded a small conference room on the 20th floor of the Tech Square building on Tuesday to cut the ribbon on the tech hub that will eventually be home to 700 new employees. The company already has 1,100 workers in the region, the spokesperson said.

Robbins and others say the move to the 750K SF building — nearly three years in the making — highlights the recognition of the tech talent being spun out of Georgia Tech and other state educational institutions and Atlanta’s historically Black colleges and universities. Atlanta’s young tech talent has been a primary driver that has attracted a wave of tech companies to the region with new regional offices and innovation hubs, officials said. 

“In a nutshell, it’s the talent,” said Robbins, a Georgia native, when asked about why he chose Atlanta for the hub. “The economic conditions, the business conditions, the cost of living, everything. The only bad part is traffic.”

Between 2016 and 2022, Atlanta saw a 15% increase in its number of tech jobs, nearly matching the growth in the San Francisco Bay Area and outpacing Austin, Texas. 

But over the past year, the tech industry has experienced a sharp pullback, with a slew of layoffs reaching 130,000 jobs so far across the U.S., according to Crunchbase. Cisco announced in December that it would slash more than 4,000 jobs, including more than 300 workers at its San Jose, California, headquarters and another 200-plus from its offices in Milpitas, California, UC Today reported. 

What effect that has had on its Atlanta plans is still unknown. Cisco hasn't disclosed any Georgia-based layoffs, and Atlanta has been insulated from job cuts compared to other markets.

In the last year, Visa opened a 123K SF office at 1200 Peachtree, a location that will eventually be home to 1,000 jobs with a focus on tech. Walmart subleased almost 21K SF from Autodesk in the Coda building for a tech hub, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. Micron Technologies opened a 93K SF design center in Central Perimeter, and Airbnb opened its 38K SF tech hub at The Interlock in Midtown, according to Avison Young.

Google is still building out the remainder of its 500K SF offices at Selig Enterprises’ 1105 West Peachtree project in Midtown despite announcing 12,000 layoffs. It hasn't listed any of its space in that project for sublease, according to Avison Young.

The most prominent local example of a tech company's pullback has been Microsoft, which halted long-term plans for a massive corporate campus on Atlanta’s Westside earlier this year. 

Rising interest rates, banking volatility and the continued cementing of hybrid work models have dampened office leasing velocity in Metro Atlanta. Companies leased 1.4M SF during the first quarter of this year, a more than 33% drop in activity from the same period in 2022, according to a Savills Atlanta office report.

Kemp, who made economic development a key component of his gubernatorial re-election campaign last year, said during a panel discussion at the opening ceremony that the state continues to see interest from companies looking to locate in Georgia despite fears that the U.S. is on the verge of a recession. 

“I think we’re going to see bumpy water ahead for us, but we’ve seen so much growth we created, so many new opportunities for people here,” Kemp said. “Even when some companies may be slowing down … there’s other opportunities for growth companies like Cisco and other companies that will just pick people up. Our pipeline is incredibly deep right now. I’m so optimistic right [now] about our state despite economic headwinds, whether we have a recession or not.”

At the new collaboration center, Cisco has gone all-in with a hybrid work model, with no privately dedicated offices or cubicles, Bob Cicero, the smart building leader for Cisco, said during a press tour of its Coda offices. Instead, the tech giant has dedicated 10% of its space there for what he called “heads-down work” and 90% of the spaces for collaborative work.

That is a change from the Cisco office format prior to the pandemic, when 70% of office space was dedicated as private offices and cubicles, Cicero said.

Georgia Tech's Cabrera, who spoke during the grand opening ceremony, said Cisco is part of a growth universe of tech companies turning to Metro Atlanta for office locations, especially as many companies chase talent. The building is owned by Portman Holdings, but it is part of the university's Tech Square center in Midtown.

“Atlanta has become … one of the most interesting technology and innovation hubs anywhere in the nation,” Cabrera said. “There’s no innovation hub anywhere in the world that is not grounded and really anchored by a great research university. And I’m very, very proud of how Georgia Tech over the last decade has emerged as the No. 1 research university in the nation without a medical school.”

CORRECTION, APRIL 12, 10:45 A.M. ET: A previous version of this article misstated the number of square feet Cisco leased at Coda. This article has been updated.