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Corporate Appeal Contains Vacancy Pressures
as Built-to-Suit Campuses Lead Inventory Growth
Nationally tight vacancy prepares the market for headwinds. Richmond’s striking construction slate this year reflects recent corporate demand for Class A office space in the metro. The two largest projects, comprising most of the year’s planned square footage, are both built-to-suit for CoStar’s new global campus. They also come to a downtown submarket where the segment vacancy rate began the year near 11 percent, having fallen by more than 100 basis points in 2025. The metrowide Class B/C measure, at nearly 10 percent, is also outperforming on a broader scale. Only a handful of other markets have such a narrow gap between segment vacancy rates, indicating the metro office stock’s broad desirability. Although the pace of corporations relocating to the market is expected to ease in 2026, the second-lowest Class A vacancy rate among major markets — roughly half the national level — should keep existing properties well positioned amid potentially softer demand growth.