Taylor Fante

As the world continues to feel the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Columbus office market recorded negative net absorption of 48,300 square feet in the second quarter. The 1 million+ square feet of new sublease space that has been added to the market since Q2 2020 has driven the vacancy rate up to 12.12 percent. Central Ohio is showing signs of recovery, with development and leasing activity picking up significantly this year. With 1.2 million square feet of product underway and a 5.4 percent QoQ increase in leased square feet, the office sector is demonstrating its resilience and beginning to rebound.

The Columbus office market continues to be impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, posting negative net absorption of 351,686 square feet and vacancy of 11.8 percent this quarter. A majority of this can be attributed to the 700,000+ square feet of sublease space that has been added to the market over the past year. On a positive note, development remains high with 1.4 million square feet underway and tenant demand is picking up. There was 355,000 square feet of new leasing activity this quarter, compared to 214,000 square feet last quarter, signifying that the office market is beginning to rebound.

The Columbus office market started to feel the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, recording negative net absorption of 664,924 square feet in the third quarter. Nearly 500,000 square feet of this can be attributed to sublease vacancy that has come on the market, compared to direct vacant space which has not significantly risen this year. This added sublease space also caused the overall vacancy rate to rise to 10.58 percent. Despite sublease vacancy increasing, direct vacancy remains stable, rising only by a quarter percentage to 9.37 percent this quarter. Overall asking rates remained steady at $19.18 per square foot, with Class A rates slightly decreasing to $21.29 per square foot. In order to compete with the large amount of sublease space, landlords are expected to slightly decrease asking rates which will consequently drive overall rates down in coming quarters. On a positive note, this quarter marks the highest construction activity since 2017, with 1,445,608 square feet of development underway. Additionally, the number of users looking for office space increased from 98 to 113 tenants in recent months, indicating an increase in tenant demand for space. As the office sector adapts to a post-COVID-19 world, Columbus can anticipate a slow recovery moving forward.