Back Bay, Route 128 Emerging As Greater Boston’s Hottest Office Markets
That was one of my takeaways from Jones Lang LaSalle’s annual market overview. The food wasn’t so bad either.
The briefings, which date back to the old Spaulding & Slye days, gives reporters and business writers a chance to chat it up over lunch with some of the top market experts and brokers in Boston.
Jones Lang’s numbers point to a market that began to come back to life in 2010 and for which better days are ahead as we move into 2011.
Some key points:
- The Rt. 128/Mass Pike market saw nearly 1 million square feet in positive absorption in 2010, with fast-growing tech and biotech firms helping drive growth. While overall vacancy is still high – 20 percent – no one else came close.
- Well, except for the Back Bay, which saw financial services firms and other companies gobble up nearly 300,000 square feet of empty space. Available space – just around 10 percent.
- Sorry Financial District, but you are definitely not hot, with more than 200,000 square feet of additional empty office space having hit the market in 2010. Vacancy is 20 percent.
- With the local economy growing again, the Bay State is on track to add more than 81,000 office jobs over the next five years. By the end of 2012, we will have regained the office jobs we lost during the Great Recession – and then some.