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Aggressive Expansions Fuel Seattle Office Market

The Puget Sound regional office market continues to tighten despite the number of active cranes. Second quarter reports from various commercial real estate brokerage houses reveal “aggressive expansions in Seattle and on the Eastside” along with healthy levels of job growth,” per Kidder Mathews Q2 report.

Colliers International pointed out the large number of tech tenant move-ins pushed the Puget Sound office market to “unprecedented net absorption and the lowest overall vacancy the past decade.”

CBRE concurred, noting total downtown vacancy has dropped dramatically from a peak of 14.9% a decade ago to roughly 7.7% Q2. That remarkable turnaround comes even against a backdrop of the market’s total net rentable area growing more than 11 million square feet. Seattle has risen from largely being considered a secondary market to one of the leading U.S. real estate hubs, observes CBRE.

Kidder Mathews pegged Q2 net absorption at more than 4.1 million square feet, and Colliers reported that of the 1.9 million square feet of Puget Sound net absorption thus far this year, Class A properties experienced more than 1.7 million square feet of absorption, representing nearly 91% of it.

Seattle’s overall weighted average rate for Class A space ended the quarter at $51.06-per-square-foot full service, according to Colliers. The largest lease of the quarter and year so far was Apple taking Kilroy Realty’s entire 333 Dexter development in Lake Union (660,000 square feet, pictured above).

Kidder Mathews points out Seattle has nine major office projects under construction after delivering nearly 1.9 million square feet of new office inventory over the quarter. There are eight or more planned spec projects expected to come on line by early 2020. With job growth expected to continue and a tolerable level of new construction, the near-term outlook for the regional office market remains positive, notes Kidder Mathews.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser

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About Dennis Kaiser

Dennis Kaiser is Vice President of Content and Public Relations for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Dennis is a communications leader with more than 30 years of experience including as a journalist and in corporate and agency marketing communications roles. He is responsible for Connect’s client content operations and is involved in a range of initiatives ranging from content strategy, message development, copywriting, media relations, social media and content marketing services. In his most recent corporate communications roles, he led a regional public relations effort across Southern California for CBRE, played a key marketing role on JLL’s national retail team, and was responsible for directing the global public relations effort at ValleyCrest, the nation’s largest commercial landscape services company. In addition to his vast commercial real estate experience, Dennis has worked on communications and launch strategies for a number of residential projects such as Disney’s Celebration in Florida, Ritter Ranch in Palmdale California (7,200 homes, 22,000 acres), WaterColor in Florida and PremierGarage in Phoenix. Dennis’s agency background included firms such as Idea Hall and Macy + Associates. He has earned an outstanding reputation with organization leaders as a trusted advisor, strategic program implementer, consensus builder and exceptional collaborator. Dennis has developed and managed national communications programs for Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, both public and private. He’s successfully worked with journalists across the globe representing clients involved in major-breaking news stories, product launches, media tours, and company news announcements. Dennis has been involved in a host of charitable and community organizations including the American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, BoyScouts, Chrysalis Foundation, Freedom For Life, HOLA, L.A.’s BEST, Reach Out and Read, Super Bowl Host Committee, and Thunderbirds Charities.

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