Some victories, some challenges: That’s a good way to sum up the second-quarter performance of the office sector in Columbus, Ohio.
Newmark, in its second quarter office report, said that the Columbus office market saw positive net absorption during the last three months. That now marks three straight quarters here with positive net absorption in this still-challenged sector.
According to Newmark, overall net absorption in the second quarter of 2022 came in at 85,044 square feet.
Of course, there are still challenges here. Newmark also reported that the office vacancy rate in the Columbus market rose to 15.79% during the second quarter. That’s an increase of 0.09% from the first quarter of the year.
The average asking rental rate for the Columbus market was $21.36 a square foot in the second quarter. That’s up slightly from the first three months of the year.
Newmark also reported that nearly 1.25 million square feet of under-construction office projects are expected to deliver in the Columbus market by the end of 2022.
In what might be the best news in its report, Newmark reported that the Central Business District saw the highest quarterly absorption, nearly 50,000 square feet. As Newmark says, this is evidence that the CBD office sector is in the middle of a recovery as more tenants continued to return to and consider Columbus’ downtown as an office option.
As in other markets, tenants are seeking higher-quality office space today. Newmark said that Class-A office properties recorded positive absorption of 89,055 square feet in the second quarter.
