Oakland Retail Market Report

First quarter move-ins provide optimism. Store closures from national tenants — such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning and Party City, among others — contributed to rising vacancy, lifting the metrowide rate to 5.9 percent entering April. Although the share of stock available for rent reached a decade-high last year, the figure still remained below the previous peak recorded during the Great Recession, and momentum is starting to build in the retail sector. The East Bay recorded more than 146,000 square feet of positive net absorption during the first three months of 2023, the largest quarterly total since 2018. Leasing activity has been most pronounced in areas along Highway 4, the 680 Corridor North and Oakland proper, and each of these submarkets sliced at least 10 basis points off their local vacancy rate during the first quarter of this year.