DFW office vacancy falls to decade-low point

DALLAS-FORT WORTH – Demand for DFW office space in 2013 increased to its highest level in seven years. Expanding and relocating companies rented an additional 3.5 million sf of office space in North Texas in 2013.

Net office leasing in the area was up about 15 percent from 2012 levels, according to a preliminary report from Cushman & Wakefield of Texas.

Area office vacancy has dropped to just under 18 percent — the lowest level in more than a decade.

Vacancy rates are even lower in some business districts in North Dallas, West Plano and Frisco where the supply of empty office space has fallen below 10 percent.

Most of the office leasing in 2013 has been concentrated in three key areas: in Richardson’s Telecom Corridor, Legacy Business Park and Frisco in Collin County and Las Colinas in Irving.

That’s also where most of the new construction is going on.

At the end of 2013, about 5.4 million sf of new office space is being built in North Texas. That’s only slightly less than was in the development pipeline in 2007, before the recession hit.

Currently there are 16 speculative office projects under construction in the DFW area totaling about 3 million sf. The rest of the construction is corporate projects that are already spoken for.