The immediate future of the office sector in Columbus looks bright, as job growth spurs demand for office space, causing rents to rise and vacancies to drop.
That’s the good news from the 2019 office investment report recently released by Marcus & Millichap for Ohio’s capital city.
According to the report, the office vacancy rate in the Columbus area should fall 20 basis points to 12.3 percent in 2019. At the same time, Marcus & Millichap predicts that office rents will rise 3.4 percent during the year, hitting an average of $19.38 a square foot.
Expect new office construction, though, to slow during the year. Marcus & Millichap says that new office construction will decline more than 40 percent this year. Marcus is predicting that only 534,000 square feet of new office product will be delivered in the Columbus market this year, the lowest this figure has been since 2015.
Office space in and around Columbus’ urban space are expected to be some of the most popular in 2019. Marcus & Millichap says that local buyers, especially, gravitate toward office space in the neighborhoods around Columbus State Community College.
Columbus is currently experiencing strong job growth, with Marcus & Millichap predicting that the area will add 21,400 new jobs in 2019. Government agencies and financial firms will produce several of these new jobs, Marcus & Millichap said.
