L.A. Office Vacancy Trends Above Nation, Coast

Josh Wrobel is a managing director at JLL.

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles has the highest vacancy rate on the West Coast, according to a new study from JLL. The average vacancy rate on the West Coast is 12.2% and Los Angeles has a 15.5% vacancy rate. The Los Angeles vacancy rate is also trending above the national office vacancy rate, 14.8%. While the vacancy rate here seems to be much higher than other markets, Josh Wrobel, a managing director at JLL, says that the office market is picking up and has plenty of runway left.

“Even in a strengthening or arguably peaking market, the Los Angeles market has less than 2% of new supply being added to the market,” Wrobel tells GlobeSt.com. “Plus, as residential development continues to boom, class-B properties and new developments often end up as residential or mixed use developments instead of traditional office supply and as such, there is limited new supply in Los Angeles. That said, with a market with 15.5% vacancy, I would not say that we have a supply problem given the capacity for various submarkets, like Downtown Los Angeles, to have a significant influx of tenants as well as the ability to convert older buildings into viable creative projects.”