Office gross leasing stats confirm tech is still the main driver for Bay Area growth, says a Cushman & Wakefield study.

SAN JOSE—If there was any wonder as to what has driven commercial and economic growth in the Bay Area during the last decade, a look at office gross leasing stats should make it perfectly clear. Not surprisingly, it is the tech industry.

But what may be surprising is that the tech world has leased more office space than all the other major industry sectors combined from the beginning of 2011 through midyear 2019, totaling 177 million square feet versus 170 million square feet. For purposes of this exercise, Cushman & Wakefield reviewed gross office leasing activity (both new deals and renewals) throughout the Bay Area including the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Sonoma.

Tech has led the march every year and often by a substantial margin, with at least twice the amount of leasing activity than the next highest group, professional services, in every year since 2014. Notably, there has been some ebb and flow during the period though, with total tech leasing slowing down in 2016 and 2017 to slightly more than 16 million square feet per year compared to more than 22 million square feet per year in 2013 and 2014, says the Cushman & Wakefield report.