Showing a strong demand for new office product coming to market, there are 22 projects remaining in the construction pipeline with pre-lease rate of 49.6%. The DFW office market had its 31st consecutive quarter of positive absorption and the fourth quarter had the highest absorption of 2017 with 1.1 million square feet, bringing the year-to-date total to nearly 2.7 million square feet. Asking rates rose once again for a DFW-wide average of $24.48, up 96 basis points from third quarter 2017. Vacancy rates began to compress slightly by 10 basis points from third quarter 2017, but are still up a full percentage year-over-year. DFW's unemployment rate of 3% continues to outperform the US average of 4.7%, according to a report by CBRE Research.—Lisa Brown

NEWS AND NOTABLES

DALLAS—Whitebox Real Estate, a full-service commercial real estate firm in Dallas, is adding a new investment sales division to round out its services. Matthew Otte has been hired as senior vice president, director of investment sales, to begin building a team to provide a full-service solution to clients on both the acquisition and disposition side. With a primary focus on urban/infill office assets across the DFW metroplex and more than 14 years of experience, the Dallas native comes to Whitebox from Transwestern Commercial Services.