OC’s Airport Area Roars Back in Q4

The Airport Area of Orange County rebounded significantly in the fourth quarter, making up for a slow year. According to a new report from JLL, office leasing activity in the Airport Area accounted for more than half of the total leasing activity for office spaces above 25,000 square feet in the fourth quarter, minus renewals. Low-rise redeveloped office properties specifically drove leasing activity in the submarket.

“The fourth quarter did significantly better than the balance of the year. The fourth quarter really made up for the year,” Jeff Ingham, senior managing director at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. “In the Airport Area, there has been some great large blocks of space and renovated projects, and those projects have seen more activity than others. The top three projects that took the bulk of the leasing momentum were UCI Research Park, The Met and a new property, The Boardwalk.”

Tenants are showing a preference for redeveloped, quality office spaces, and are looking to right-size current square footage and maximize efficiency. Because the Airport Area has large blocks of available space, it was a prime market for these tenants. “We are tracking tenants that are over 25,000 square feet, and in the fourth quarter we saw the number of blocks of space over 50,000 square feet dropped,” says Ingham. “It was the first quarter where that happened, and it is a sign that tenants are moving to quality. About three-quarters of the activity was in low-rise buildings and about 60% of it was in the class-B market as well, which was interesting.”