For the past two years developers have been repositioning Class B buildings to Trophy and Class A in response to demand and to capture the upside in rents. In the last 24 months 2-million-square feet of Class B product has been taken offline for that reason.

The remaining class B buildings have, of course, seen occupancy gains as a result — especially as demand has increased from nonprofits, tech and other creative class startups.

In the past 24 months, vacancies have fallen to 8.5% from 10% in this sector as a result. Asking rents have risen 5.1% and since the beginning of 2015, there has been a 9.2% increase in net effective rents.

WASHINGTON, DC–Washington DC has not only been a tenants' market, but according to a recent report from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank it is a strongly-favored tenant market. Next year landlords will get a bit of pricing power, NGKF predicts, but not enough to move the needle by a great deal.

NGKF, however, was focusing on Class A properties.

It is a different world entirely for Class B office buildings, according to JLL, which finds in a recent study that Class B properties in the city's core have shifted to landlords' favor due to several trends — trends that it expects will continue through 2017.

Here is how it happened:

For the past two years developers have been repositioning Class B buildings to Trophy and Class A in response to demand and to capture the upside in rents. In the last 24 months 2-million-square feet of Class B product has been taken offline for that reason.

The remaining class B buildings have, of course, seen occupancy gains as a result — especially as demand has increased from nonprofits, tech and other creative class startups.

In the past 24 months, vacancies have fallen to 8.5% from 10% in this sector as a result. Asking rents have risen 5.1% and since the beginning of 2015, there has been a 9.2% increase in net effective rents.