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The firm CBRE released a report July 9 summarizing local office market activity for the second quarter of 2024, or the spring.
The report revealed a total office vacancy rate of 18.6%, and an increasing rate of absorption, which is the amount of space that is occupied within a market over a given period of time.
CBRE's report showed 145,800 total square feet of office space being absorbed during the second quarter of the year.
CBRE representatives said through the first two quarters of 2024, office space tenants have occupied more than 138,600 square feet across the San Antonio area market.
A significant local office space move in 2024, according to the CBRE report, occurred in March when officials with Galen College of Nursing announced they were securing 150,000 square feet at the Vista Corporate Center, 13805 W. I-10, to develop a new local campus.
Despite the positive absorption umber, the CBRE report stated, total vacancy ticked upward by 50 basis points since the end of 2023. This, CBRE representatives said, is largely because 175,000 square feet of 200,000 square feet of newly opened office space remains vacant.
The report cites River Mill, a redevelopment of a shuttered New Braunfels textile factory, as a project that will produce 130,000 square feet of office space.
CBRE representatives said office leasing activity has totaled more than 1 million square feet in the first half of 2024, ahead of last year’s pace.
According to the report, while the San Antonio-area office market has struggled to return to pre-pandemic levels, fundamentals are generally trending upward, with Class A space seeing the strongest growth.
What else?
CBRE representatives said the San Antonio office market has seen the addition of nearly 1.4 million square feet of Class A space since 2022, reflecting 8.2% of total local office inventory.
The report also stated leasing rates have increased to a record average high of $29.31 per square foot, the result of Class A and Class B assets collectively driving growth.
According to the report, the San Antonio-area market has 15.8 million square feet of Class A space and 14.5 million square feet of Class B space currently available for rent.
The northwest part of the market has the most square feet of office space of any local sectors, with 11.2 million square feet total space available for leasing.
