Leasing remains steady despite economic uncertainty and evolving workplace strategy
The Denver office market remained steady at the close of 2022. While over 340 transactions totaling 1.6 million square feet (msf) of leasing activity was reported across the metro region in Q4 2022, overall leasing activity was down 25% from 2.2 msfreported a year ago. Full year 2022 total leasing activity of 6.8 msfwas flat from 2021 but is down 23% from 8.6 msfreported in 2019 which was the last full year before the pandemic. The overall average asking rental rate of $32.43 per square foot (psf) ticked down from $32.44 psfreported last quarter but remains 2.7% higher than $31.58 psfreported a year ago. The construction pipeline remains high with 4.6 msfof office space currently underway. With projects such as 1900 Lawrence, The Current, Paradigm River North and several other Class A projects in the development pipeline, expect availability levels to increase if there is no uptick in leasing activity.