Local experts say the office vacancy rate in Arlington could drop below 15% as more businesses continue to open in the area.
Arlington Office of Nesbitt Realty
Commercial real estate leaders Avison Young and Arlington Economic Development (AED) said that it is still likely for Arlington to continue with its long-standing struggle with a high number of empty spaces.
"There’s still a lot of work to do, and it’s going to be a steep hill to climb," AED Interim Director Alex Iams said during a "Future of Arlington" panel organized by Bisnow Thursday.
However, Iams and Avison Young Principal Nick Gregorios both said they expect the office vacancy rate to drop again in 2020. "If growth continues at its current rate in 2020, the vacancy rate could fall by up to 1.5 percentage points," Gregorios said.
Commercial real estate firm JLL reported the office vacancy rate to be at 16% as of Sept. 30. That's down 5% from the county’s all-time high of 21% in 2015 and places Arlington a little below the current national average of 16.7%.
According to Iams, the high vacancy rate drop is due to companies like Yext, PBS, and iTG coming to Arlington or renewing their leases.
"There are still about 7 million square feet of empty office space across Arlington to fill," said Iams. "Seven building vacancies have over 125,000 square feet of space apiece, leaving room for large companies." The Thursday’s panel itself was held on an empty floor of the Ballston Exchange office space.
Former AED director Victor Hoskins, in 2015 pledged to bring Arlington’s office vacancy rate down to as low as 10 percent within the next six years. Although the goal is still unrealized, Arlington might come close as the arrival of Amazon continues to generate interest in the Arlington office space.
A 2019 report by developer JBG Smith showed that since Amazon's HQ2 announcement a year ago, the company has executed one million square feet of new leases in the National Landing area-Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Potomac Yard- plus 400,000 square feet of renewals.
“What we used to do is go to tech conferences to get out name out there to differentiate ourselves, but that’s not the case anymore,” Iams said. “Northern Virginia put itself on the map during the HQ2 process, and we’ll continue to work closely together for out-of-market deals with our Northern Virginia partners.”
Charity W. is a professional and skilled writer with a diploma in Mass Communication. When she is not glued to her computer screen, Charity spends her time reading, traveling, and watching movies. She is an expert on Arlington Virginia and keeps current with local events and occurrences.
