Midtown's future was among several topics touched on during apanel discussion hosted last week by law firm Arnall Golden GregoryLLC. About 350 people attended Thursday's breakfast meeting at theBB&T Building.

First-quarter statistics by Jones Lang LaSalle show thatMidtown's vacancy rate of 17.8% is between Buckhead's 16.4% rateand 19.7% for Downtown Atlanta. Midtown rents are also in themidrange at $24.69 per square foot, just a dollar over the citywideaverage.

With 14 million square feet of office inventory, Midtown isexpected to hold its own because of recent improvements to streetsand mass transit making access easier, along with the youngerdemographic being drawn to residential developments near PiedmontPark. At least 1.2 million square feet of new class A office is nowunder construction, while the affluent Buckhead market has twomillion, JLL statistics show.