SURVEY OF DOWNTOWN OFFICE SPACE May 2017 ROCHESTER DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION 100 Chestnut Street, Suite 1910 ~ Rochester, New York 14604 (585) 546-6920 ~ (585) 546-4784 (fax)
[email protected] ~ www.rochesterdowntown.com ~ The Rochester Downtown Development Corporation’s SURVEY OF DOWNTOWN OFFICE SPACE, May 2017 Executive Summary RDDC tracks nearly every building located in the downtown market, defined as everything within what was the Inner Loop plus High Falls, Upper East End, and Alex Park. Downtown’s commercial building inventory contains the region’s oldest office structures as well as its newest towers. This year, RDDC is tracking 10 million square feet in 115 office buildings. Of these, 86 are competitive buildings totaling 6.9 million square feet – 69% of all downtown space. RESULTS SNAPSHOT The May 2017 downtown office market story was mixed. Class “A” improved for the second year in a row, with Class “A/R” also showing signs of improvement. But overall vacancy was up this year, and absorption ran negative by 131,193 square feet since May 2016. Classes “B”, “Non-Traditional” and “Medical” all recorded increased vacancy, which was not anticipated. With changes in several buildings, the downtown office inventory grew by 63,266 square feet. Alexander Park and St. Joseph’s Park were the strongest neighborhoods for office space tenancy in 2017. Those recording the highest vacancy were the Midtown District and High Falls. Two of the remaining six downtown commercial neighborhoods notably saw significant improvement in occupancy – Washington Square and Manhattan Square. While the office market is undeniably weaker than in previous decades, there are a number of points worth making: CBRE Rochester reports significantly more tenant interest in downtown space than they’ve seen in the past 20 years.