D-FW Office Construction Increases
Dallas-Fort Worth office leasing dipped in the third quarter, but year-to-date totals are still ahead of where they were in 2018.
Expanding and relocating tenants net leased more than 500,000 square feet of office space in North Texas in the just completed quarter, according to the latest data from commercial real estate firm CBRE. That was down from almost 850,000 square feet of leasing a year ago. Total D-FW net leasing for the first nine months of 2019 adds up to more than 2 million square feet. During the same period of 2018, net leasing totaled only about 1 million square feet.
And not all of the big local office leases signed in the third quarter have made it into the numbers. "Not all of the leasing will be counted until the tenant moves into the space," said Clay Vaughn, CBRE senior vice president. "Overall the market where we sit today compared to where we were last year looks extremely good."
CBRE analysts said that company moves and job growth in the D-FW area are driving demand for office space. "This trend is slated to remain strong as large block leases have continued at a consistent pace," the new study concludes. "Since 2009, the Metroplex has seen over 31 million square feet of positive absorption" of office space.
The biggest leases signed in the third quarter were by Lockheed Martin, Uber and American Specialty Health. Office construction picked up in the third quarter with 5.4 million square feet of buildings in the development pipeline. Ten new D-FW office projects were kicked off. Office construction in the area is now at the highest point since 2017. CBRE estimates that about 22% of the buildings going up are already leased to businesses.
"It's not concentrated in one specific market - you have projects going on in several different areas," Vaughn said...
