Big Office Blocks Getting Scarce
There's still a fair amount of vacant office space in greater Phoenix—Cushman & Wakefield puts overall vacancies at 21.8% in Q1—but for companies looking for more than 100k SF in one place, the market's getting tighter.
Just before the recession, 2006-07 was a record period for office deliveries, adding 7M SF of new product to the market, Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona managing director Jerry Noble tells us. “And here we are in 2015, and we're just now working through that inventory.” Tech companies have been taking a lot of large blocks recently, he says. Four years ago, a tenant looking for more than 100k SF had 80 buildings in the Valley to pick from; now, Jerry explains, there are only 31 spaces that size.
In highly desirable markets like Chandler, Jerry adds, even finding more than 50k SF in one place can be tricky. Even so, he predicts that overall, the Phoenix office market might have its "best year ever” in 2015, with strong leasing velocity. And there isn't going to be an overwhelming amount of new supply, with only 4M SF under construction, and 2M SF of that is the State Farm campus in Tempe (pictured).
