Local Affairs
Medley, the $560 million mixed-use district Toro Development Co. built on a former State Farm office campus in Johns Creek, opened last week with all of its office space leased. The 112,000-square-foot office building was developed on a speculative basis, meaning without tenants committed when the project started, and every square foot was spoken for by opening day. Toro held the district’s grand opening ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 29, according to Real Estate Business Online.
For workers, the leasing milestone is mainly a story about where existing jobs sit, not about new ones. The building’s anchor tenant, Boehringer Ingelheim, moved its U.S. Animal Health headquarters there in August and brought about 500 employees with it, according to The Johns Creek Magazine. Those are relocated positions. Neither the company nor the developer has announced a hiring figure tied to the move.
Who is in the building
Boehringer Ingelheim leased 73,000 square feet, taking two full floors. When Stream Realty Partners announced the lease in April 2025, it said the company employed nearly 500 people who were expected to move in by summer 2026, and it called the deal the largest new Class A office lease north of the Perimeter in nearly five years.
The company celebrated the headquarters’ opening on Aug. 31. Its release said Johns Creek was chosen for “access to talent in one of the region’s fastest-growing life sciences and innovation corridors” and for proximity to its other Georgia sites: research, development and manufacturing in Athens and manufacturing in Gainesville. The release did not give a headcount for the Johns Creek office or say where the headquarters staff had worked before.
Brightree, a software company serving the health care industry, leased 17,751 square feet. The rest of the building went to a tenant that has not been named. Stream Realty Partners handled leasing for Toro, and Cushman & Wakefield represented Boehringer Ingelheim and Brightree.
A rare result in a soft office market
The Johns Creek Magazine reported that Medley is the first speculative office project in metro Atlanta to open fully leased in more than a decade. The previous one, it said, was 8000 Avalon Blvd., a 228,893-square-foot building at Toro’s Avalon development in Alpharetta that opened in 2014. Avalon’s 582,000 square feet of office space is now 98% occupied, according to the magazine.
The wider market is much weaker. Citing Stream Realty Partners, the magazine reported that about 6.7 million square feet of new office space has been delivered in metro Atlanta since 2019 and that 29% of it remains available. Class A vacancy in North Fulton is about 31%, while Johns Creek’s office vacancy rate is about 18%.
To build Medley, Toro demolished 350,000 square feet of vacant suburban office space and renovated an existing building into the 112,000-square-foot office component. State Farm had occupied the 43-acre site before moving its operations to Atlanta’s Perimeter area in 2013.
Toro’s pitch is that tenants want offices surrounded by shops, restaurants and housing. “Energy is the real difference maker in creating a commute-worthy workplace experience,” Mark Toro, the company’s founder and chief vision officer, told the magazine. Stream’s Bryan Heller told the magazine that companies have plenty of space to choose from but far fewer options that pair a modern workplace with walkable amenities.
What else opened
Real Estate Business Online reported that 25 restaurants and retailers opened at Medley, including Trader Joe’s, Shake Shack and Sephora. The district also includes 881 residences, a 25,000-square-foot plaza, and a 150-room boutique hotel in Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio scheduled to open in 2028.
The retail openings will bring store and restaurant jobs to the district, but none of the sources reviewed gave a count of those positions, and none should be inferred from the office leasing news.
What it means for workers
For job seekers in North Fulton, the practical takeaway is that a large employer’s headquarters is now in Johns Creek’s Town Center rather than somewhere else in the region, which may change commutes for current staff and, over time, where future openings at that office are based. Anyone interested in Boehringer Ingelheim’s U.S. Animal Health headquarters should check the company’s own careers site; no new roles were announced with the move.
The fully leased status is also a single-building result. With nearly a third of North Fulton’s Class A space vacant, it does not by itself signal a turnaround in suburban office demand.
Sources
- The Johns Creek Magazine (The Creek), “Medley’s office space opens fully leased,” October 30, 2026. https://thejohnscreekmagazine.com/getting-down-to-business-medleys-office-space-opens-fully-leased/
- Real Estate Business Online, “Toro Development Opens $560M Medley Mixed-Use Destination in Johns Creek, Georgia,” October 30, 2026. https://rebusinessonline.com/toro-development-opens-560m-medley-mixed-use-destination-in-johns-creek-georgia/
- Boehringer Ingelheim via PR Newswire, “Boehringer Ingelheim Celebrates Grand Opening of New U.S. Animal Health Headquarters in Johns Creek, Georgia,” August 31, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boehringer-ingelheim-celebrates-grand-opening-of-new-us-animal-health-headquarters-in-johns-creek-georgia-302865243.html
- Stream Realty Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim 73,000-square-foot lease at Medley in Johns Creek, April 16, 2025. https://streamrealty.com/boehringer-ingelheim-signs-73000-square-foot-lease-at-medley-in-johns-creek/
- WhatNow Atlanta, “A Johns Creek Mixed-Use Development Opens With Its Office Space Fully Leased,” October 30, 2026. https://whatnow.com/atlanta/real-estate/a-johns-creek-mixed-use-development-opens-with-its-office-space-fully-leased/
Featured photo: An office building at 11460 Johns Creek Parkway in Johns Creek, Georgia, November 2017. Representative image of North Fulton suburban office space; not the Medley development. Photo: Thomson200, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Cropped from the original.
