Los Angeles Falls Short on Office Development

Los Angeles is not one of the top metros for office development in the coming year, according to a new office development report from Yardi’s Commercial Café. In 2018, the city expects to deliver 1.7 million square feet of competitive office space, ringing in at number 10 on the list of the top office development markets. New York, San Francisco and Washington DC top the list. The thin office development pipeline shows that L.A.’s economy is at a point of minimal growth and while several office sectors are growing, it isn’t enough to expand the office development pipeline. To find out more, we sat down with Doug Ressler, senior research office at Yardi, for an interview to discuss L.A.’s office development pipeline and his expectations for the next year.

GlobeSt.com: Is it surprising that L.A. is not one of the top cities for office development in the US? Doug Ressler: In one word No. With the unemployment rate at 4.4 percent, we believe the Los Angeles economy is at a point of minimal growth. The entertainment industry and content generators continue to provide robust employment. Mature professional service sectors are likely to add additional headcount but will not significantly expand the office market, and will choose to increase space density.