Columbus Office Developers Hit Historic High

Columbus plans to bring more parkland and recreational space to its riverfront, making the urban core more appealing to the younger tech workforce.

COLUMBUS—The office market here has been building up a head of steam for several years now, and in the first quarter, developers set a record by having 1.6 million square feet under construction, including about 600,000 square feet of speculative projects, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s new market report. 

The downtown has outperformed the suburbs, and now has a vacancy rate of just 12.4%, compared to 14.2% for the metro area as a whole. And the CBD’s future looks bright, as the city’s Scioto Greenways project has begun adding vast amounts of parkland along the downtown’s waterfront, perhaps providing a big boost to companies that hope to recruit new employees attracted to clean, livable environments.