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WASHINGTON, DC–Cushman & Wakefield has come out with its first top tech cities list and Washington DC is No. 3, topped only by San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
Read C&W Debuts Its Top Tech US Cities List
Asking how this happened is a fair question. Sure, the DC area has been vying for big tech firm leases such as the 100,000-square foot deals that routinely come to market in California, but such efforts never got the traction that local leaders and property owners had hoped.
The answer can be found in C&W's criteria, which did not focus so much on tech companies' presence in a city but rather on the “vibe” of the city and other metrics such as local universities' efforts in advancing technology and the local workforce. It was those factors, not surprisingly, that propelled Washington DC into the upper ranks, Theo Slagle, a C&W director and expert on the tech sector in Washington, DC, tells GlobeSt.com.
“There is strong access to intellectual capital from local universities; we have a highly-motivated and highly skilled workforce,” he says.
There is also a plethora of co-working options, which have fostered a strong startup community, he adds.
Technology has been the only sector that has had a positive net absorption in terms of leased space, Slagle continues — albeit it is a very small percentage of overall activity.
That said, those 100,000-square foot deals that have eluded DC save for a few exceptions may be on a cusp of becoming a more regular feature here.
“Yelp is rumored to be in the market for anywhere between 92,000 square feet to 150,000 square feet,” according to Slagle.
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WASHINGTON, DC–Cushman & Wakefield has come out with its first top tech cities list and Washington DC is No. 3, topped only by San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
Read C&W Debuts Its Top Tech US Cities List
Asking how this happened is a fair question. Sure, the DC area has been vying for big tech firm leases such as the 100,000-square foot deals that routinely come to market in California, but such efforts never got the traction that local leaders and property owners had hoped.
The answer can be found in C&W's criteria, which did not focus so much on tech companies' presence in a city but rather on the “vibe” of the city and other metrics such as local universities' efforts in advancing technology and the local workforce. It was those factors, not surprisingly, that propelled Washington DC into the upper ranks, Theo Slagle, a C&W director and expert on the tech sector in Washington, DC, tells GlobeSt.com.
“There is strong access to intellectual capital from local universities; we have a highly-motivated and highly skilled workforce,” he says.
There is also a plethora of co-working options, which have fostered a strong startup community, he adds.
Technology has been the only sector that has had a positive net absorption in terms of leased space, Slagle continues — albeit it is a very small percentage of overall activity.
That said, those 100,000-square foot deals that have eluded DC save for a few exceptions may be on a cusp of becoming a more regular feature here.
“Yelp is rumored to be in the market for anywhere between 92,000 square feet to 150,000 square feet,” according to Slagle.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
