DALLAS – The Dallas-Fort Worth office market vacancy rate decreased to 21.7 percent during 2011, a decline of 110 basis points from the prior year, according to Grubb & Ellis. The Grubb & Ellis report said:
- The vacancy rate for Class A office space decreased 60 basis points to 20.2 percent in the last 12 months, marking the sector’s lowest level since early 2009. The vacancy rate for Class B properties dropped to 23.7 percent in the last year, a 110-basis-point reduction and the sector’s best performance since the end of 2008.
- The region’s office market posted 887,832 square feet of positive net absorption in the fourth quarter of 2011, bringing the year-to-date positive absorption total to more than 2.1 million square feet.
- The bulk of the net absorption gains in 2011 occurred in the Class B sector, which experienced 867,313 square feet of positive net absorption as tenants leased good quality space at competitive rental rates.
- Year-over-year, average asking rental rates for the region’s Class A office market decreased $0.38 to $22.92 per square foot. Average asking rental rates for Class B office space dropped to $17.73 per square foot at year-end, a $0.07 decrease from the prior year.
- More than 4.4 million square feet of sublease space was available at the end of 2011, a drop of 28.5 percent from the peak in early 2010.
- The Dallas-Fort Worth region closed the year with 615,600 square feet of space under construction in the form of three speculative and one build-to-suit projects. Developers broke ground on a 164,000-square-foot, six-story office building during the fourth quarter in the West Plano/Frisco submarket that will be completed in early 2013.