Office leasing in the Washington, D.C., area is at its lowest levels in 13 years—yet another symptom of the economic crisis.
The Washington Post reported on May 19 that first-quarter figures for 2008 show a 10 percent decline in office space leasing from the same period in 2007. This comes at a time when an additional 14.4 million square feet of office space in the region is under construction.
“With supply coming online so much faster than demand, who is going to step up and take that space?” said Robert Hartley, director of research at real estate firm CB Richard Ellis.
The hardest hit regions include Northern Virginia, where vacancy rates in Reston and Herndon have reached 15.4 percent, up from 11.2 percent in 2007, while the office market on Virginia Route 28 South has vacancies at 17.9 percent, up from 11.9 percent in 2007. Both were key areas for development speculation during the boom period peaking in 2005.
