Office Vacancies Will Lead Nation

DALLAS-The Dallas Downtown and suburban office markets are set for a “moderate decline” between this year and 2008, according to a recent third-quarter market report from Jones Lang La Salle, which covers current market conditions and forecasts on 17 markets. Jones Lang LaSalle is projecting that the vacancies in Downtown by 2008 will rise to 27%, the highest of all the markets. Jones LaSalle is forecasting an overall vacancy rate of 19.7% for the suburban markets around Dallas, also the highest in the nation.

Currently, the direct vacancy rate for the Dallas CBD is 25.52%, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. When subleased space is included, it rises to 26.54%. In the third quarter, the CBD absorbed 60,036 sf, for year-to-date absorption of 196,914 sf, according to the report. The market has a total of 24.08 million sf of space.

For the Dallas suburban office market, the Preston Center boasts the lowest vacancy rate at 10.14%. It also is the smallest of the eight submarkets tracked by Jones Lang LaSalle with 3.7 million sf. Jones Lang LaSalle finds the highest vacancy rate in the 8.8-million-sf Stemmons Freeway submarket. That submarket has a vacancy rate of 32.64%.

As far as other suburban submarket vacancy rates are concerned, Far North Dallas’ vacancy is at 17.64%; Las Colinas is at 23.07%; LBJ Freeway is at 29.59%; North Central Expressway posted 17.43% vacancy; Richardson Plano is at 21.81%; and Oak Lawn/Uptown posted a 13.35% vacancy rate.

In addition to Dallas, Jones Lang LaSalle tracks Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington, DC.