St. Joe expects to lease a minimum of 300,000 sf of new space next year and develop about a half million sf of new product. The developer is also negotiating to buy two and possibly four existing office assets. "It's a full plate, but we'll make it," St. Joe president Frank W. Herring Jr. tells GlobeSt.com.

In metro Charlotte, the office engine is also running at full throttle. Bank of America is building a $13.8 million, 120,000-sf building, 20 miles north of Downtown. Childress Klein Properties Inc. has a four-story, 120,00-sf building under way at LakePoint Corporate Center. High Associates Ltd. has broken ground on the first of two 100,000-sf buildings planned for the $20-million Mallard Point office park.

Atlanta is also experiencing record office absorption. For the nine-month period ending Sept. 30, the metro market absorbed 5.93 million sf, the highest nine-month volume ever tracked by researcher Richard Bowers & Co. Average full-service rents are at $21.34 per sf, up from $21.01 at mid-year. Overall occupancy is 91.76%. The strongest submarket is the GA 400 where 756,783 sf was absorbed in the third quarter alone. That's almost twice what the Downtown submarket posted (427,906 sf).