NOLA Office Market Continues Upward Trend

by CSB Staff • January 8, 2014 • Central Business District, Jefferson Parish, Office • Comments (0) • 4713

The commercial office market is heating up, following the same increases we are seeing in retail, hotel, and multifamily across the metro area.

The Metairie and Central Business District office markets will continue strengthen in 2014 as occupancy rates and average rents increase.

One broker, Robert Hand, suggested that there has been a 54 percent increase in office property for sale in the CBD, from 600,000 square feet available in 2012 to 922,000 available at the end of 2013.

“Over the next couple of years, there is going to be much more demand for office space in Orleans Parish than there already is,” Hand said. “The CBD market is becoming a living community with residences and other amenities opening at a growing pace.”

“Rates are on the rise in the CBD, but you are still getting somewhat of a bargain when you compare it to the more than $23 per square foot rate in Metairie,” Hand said.

CSB reports lease rates range from $16.50 to $18.50 per square foot for Class A space in the CBD, going as high as $24/sf in Metairie.

Bruce Sossaman, leasing director for Corporate Realty, told CityBusiness that Class A occupancy in the CBD grew from 85 percent in 2012 to 88 percent at the end of 2013.

Sossaman notes that the “great equalizer” between the lower rates in Orleans and higher rates in Metairie will always be parking

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