JLL: Proximity to Metro Is Driving Occupancy Gains In Prince George’s County
Even office developments located farther from the metro are showing some signs of positive change.
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY–Vacancy for offices within half-a-mile of the metro in Prince George’s County has dropped to its lowest point since 2011, falling from 33.9% in 2014 to 14.1% in the first quarter of 2018, according to a new research note by JLL. To double down on this point of the metro helping to drive occupancy gains, JLL also reports that vacancy among offices farther than half-a-mile from the metro in Prince George’s County has hovered above 20% in recent years.
Developments within half-a-mile of Metro have seen close to 90,000 square feet of occupancy gains since 2015 and these gains are expected to continue as Kaiser Permanente and the US Department of Homeland Security-Citizenship and Immigration Services move into a combined 750,000 square feet over the next 24 months. This could potentially push direct vacancy to around 10% for this area of the market, JLL said.
Indeed, JLL notes that developments near transit have the potential to continue to attract large federal agencies, “as these sites offer tenants high-quality office product served by multiple transit lines at almost half the price of new product currently underway in the emerging markets of Washington, DC where federal government presence is strong.”
Even office developments located farther from the metro are showing some signs of positive change. It writes:
Planned and future conversions of largely vacant office buildings to other uses, such as what is currently being planned at 6009 Oxon Hill Road, will lower supply and thus have the potential to lower overall vacancy rates and introduce a mixture of uses, which will draw new amenities to the area and thus subsequent commercial demand.