NEW YORK CITY—The third quarter saw the US office sector continue its run of strong performance, with rents either holding steady or rising in the sector's 10 leading markets, according to Colliers International's latest report. Yet while the traditional industries contributed to that success story, the real trendsetters lately have been comparative newcomers.

In early October, Dropbox signed the largest office lease San Francisco has ever seen: 736,000 square feet, representing the entirety of Kilroy Realty's Exchange on 16th development. And Colliers notes that creative office space providers, including WeWork, are increasing their presence in several markets, notably Boston. To get a handle on the brave new world of office leasing, GlobeSt.com spoke recently with Michael Cohen, president of the New York tri-state region at Colliers. An edited version of that conversation appears below.

GlobeSt.com: The third quarter was marked by major leasing deals in many markets from tech firms as well as coworking firms. And we also saw a push in a number of markets to attract Amazon for its HQ2. Can we chalk all of this up as simply more evidence of how important tech has become to the office sector?