SAN DIEGO—Between Amazon, Illumina, Northrop Grumman and a spate of other large corporate users, the options for large office users are dwindling, driving the redevelopment frenzy, Brett Ward, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield's office division in San Diego, tells GlobeSt.com. The region's office market regained its robust momentum in the third quarter spurred by some large corporate users, according to the firm's Q3 office market report.

The market achieved 716,600 square feet of positive net absorption, bringing total year-to-date occupancy growth to nearly 1.3 million square feet, which equates to an average of 423,000 square feet of growth per quarter. According to Jolanta Campion, C&W's research director in San Diego, this was the highest level of positive net absorption through the first three quarters of any year since 2005's 1.4 million square feet of absorption.

According to Ward, occupancy growth in the third quarter was heavily driven by a handful of large corporate users. Illumina occupied the newly delivered 316,300-square-foot i3 project in Eastgate, and Renovate America took occupancy of a newly renovated 161,000-square-foot building for its new consolidated headquarters in Rancho Bernardo. Northrop Grumman also expanded into an existing 222,500-square-foot building at Summit Rancho Bernardo. “We also saw notable move-ins from the California Institute of Art & Technology (44,000 square feet in National City), Synteract (37,000 square feet in Carlsbad) and Certona (32,000 square feet in Sorrento Mesa).”