Seattle-Tacoma Office Market Report

Metrics improve south of the CBD. The Southend had positive net absorption over each of the past four quarters, slashing local vacancy amid rises across other areas of the metro. Adoption of hybrid work formats, as well as urban headwinds resulting from less economic activity in the core, has led some office-using firms to re-assess their local footprints. For this reason, large blocks of space have recently been put back on to the market in the CBD and Eastside. During this reshuffling, some firms took up smaller floor plans in the Southend, where the mean asking rent was nearly $12 lower per square foot than the aforementioned areas in March. Partly due to this, Southend was the metro’s only location to have a lower vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2023 than in 2019, as a mild 2.4 percent stock expansion over that span directed tenants to existing spaces. This trend resumes near-term, as Wizards of the Coast and Regence Blue Shield occupy area offices this year amid nominal new supply.