Tucked within metro Atlanta’s iconic Queen tower is a full-size kitchen filled with well-known appliances, from branded slow cookers to coffee pots.
Next door is a series of mock retail shelves imitating a grocery store stocked with products. A few stories higher is a craft room designed to easily clean up marker messes and spilled glue.
The array of test rooms may at first seem disconnected, but they’re all in service of discovering new ways to sell a recognizable slate of products owned by Newell Brands, one of metro Atlanta’s largest companies.
“It’s a consumer products company — we just produce a lot of stuff,” Josh Scofield, senior director of corporate real estate for Newell Brands, said.
Newell is a Fortune 500 company that owns more than 50 recognizable consumer brands, from kitchen appliances (Crock-Pot and Mr. Coffee) to home goods (Rubbermaid and Coleman) to craft products (Sharpie and Elmer’s). The company on Wednesday celebrated its new global headquarters, which consolidates roughly 1,000 employees from its product divisions into one space.
The 180,000-square-foot headquarters spans seven stories within the Queen tower in Sandy Springs, one of the two tallest towers in metro Atlanta outside of downtown, Midtown and Buckhead. The 14.5-year lease was one of the most significant office signings of last year and was the largest inked in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket since 2018. Other lease terms, including the price, were not disclosed.
Credit: Courtesy Building & Land Technology/Kevin Griggs
Credit: Courtesy Building & Land Technology/Kevin Griggs
Newell CEO Chris Peterson said the new headquarters will succeed the company’s prior headquarters at 6655 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, which is now occupied by fellow Fortune 500 firm Asbury Automotive. It also consolidates departments across five Newell offices that previously spread across Atlanta’s northern suburbs, Chicago and Florida.
“To be able to consolidate all five of those into a single location, I think, is going to be a game changer for the company,” Peterson said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The Queen building, its neighboring King building and the surrounding Concourse mixed-use campus are operated by landlord Building and Land Technology. The complex, which spans nearly 1.4 million square feet of office space, was 92% leased as of last June when Newell announced its lease signing, according to brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Peterson said the Queen building represents a quality upgrade for the corporate giant, which wants to create a “commute-worthy office.” Companies, since the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, have had to rethink their workplace plans to retain employees while getting value out of the office space they’re leasing.
“You have to fight the home office,” Scofield said. “That’s what you’re really competing with.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Newell operates on a hybrid schedule, requiring employees to come to the office three days per week. Many of Atlanta’s largest employers have similar policies.
Scofield said the headquarters was designed to be inviting for workers, offering the expected trappings of a modern office. Floors are dotted with sit-stand desks and a variety of tech-filled meeting spaces, both public and private. A lobby space has a coffee bar with a barista and casual spots to chat with co-workers.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“People wanted both more privacy and more collaboration,” Scofield said of a survey of 700 Newell employees on their office wants. “They wanted to be able to come together in a physical space and collaborate socially, but also develop new product and innovate.”
The new space also allowed Newell leaders to integrate what they call innovation rooms — the functional spaces that imitate kitchens, supermarkets and craft rooms as playgrounds for selling products. Scofield said a company focused on its roster of goods needs to represent that in its workplace.
“Make sure the products are at the forefront of the space and the design,” he said.
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