Written by: Hannah Williams, CPRC
Hannah specializes in research capabilities, providing support for the Colliers Columbus Office, Industrial, Retail, and Multifamily Groups. She is responsible for executing data reports, maintaining a commercial property database, reporting quarterly trends, performing data analysis and utilizing statistical information to predict future behavior in the market. She also assists the marketing and research director on special projects and corporate initiatives. Keep reading to get Hannah’s take on market trends in the Columbus industrial and office sectors.
INDUSTRIAL
The Columbus industrial market started the year strong, recording 5,072,626 square feet of net absorption. The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has caused already-high demand for warehouse space to skyrocket, leading to booming activity in the industrial sector. This growth has yielded absorption greater than 1 million square feet in 14 of the past 15 quarters in Central Ohio and driven vacancy to 4.02 percent - the lowest it’s been in three years. With consistent demand and expected construction completions, Columbus can anticipate more activity throughout 2021 as the pandemic fuels growth in industrial space.
The industrial market has seen consistent development and positive absorption in recent years. Activity has skyrocketed further since Q1 2020 due to growing demand for warehouse space from the COVID-19 pandemic.
OFFICE
The Columbus office market continues to be impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, posting negative net absorption of 351,686 square feet and vacancy of 11.8 percent this quarter. A majority of this can be attributed to the 700,000+ square feet of sublease space that has been added to the market over the past year. On a positive note, development remains high with 1.4 million square feet underway and tenant demand is picking up. There was 355,000 square feet of new leasing activity this quarter, compared to 214,000 square feet last quarter, signifying that the office market is beginning to rebound.
The previously-strong office market has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, posting negative net absorption and increased vacancy in the last three quarters. However, construction completions have stayed consistent QoQ and we anticipate these prime spaces to be in high demand throughout the rest of the year.
Click here to access the full Q1 Industrial and Office Trends Reports.
Comments