DFW Office Market Gathers Head of Steam

American Airlines’ 1.8 million-square-foot campus is the fifth largest in the country (credit: Venture Mechanical).

DALLAS—After a rather tepid 2017 performance, the US office market gathered a bit of steam in 2018, adding 76 million square feet of new office space and completing roughly 396 new projects in its top 40 most active markets for office completions. In fact, for the past 10 years, the US economy has had more than 110 consecutive months of growth, making this the second longest economic expansion since the Great Depression.

On a national level, 662 buildings and a staggering 115 million square feet of new office space are on track for delivery this year, according to Yardi Matrix data recorded up to April 9. Despite concerns about how the pace of development will be affected by tariff and trade wars, growing construction costs and labor shortages, the office sector is expected to hold up better than it has in earlier downturns. This is mainly due to more restrained lending practices, a more moderate pace of development and the concentration of new office properties in markets with significant job growth.