ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Office space in Clayton is filling up for the first time in the pandemic. In downtown St. Louis, meanwhile, vacancy is rising, up over a year ago.
St. Louis' strongest office market, Clayton for the first quarter saw a vacancy rate of 12.3%, down from 13% in the fourth quarter but up from 11.7% a year ago, research from Cushman & Wakefield said. The Clayton submarket in the first quarter saw positive net absorption — space leased compared with space made available — of 58,718 square feet, it said.
A notable new lease in the first quarter: Hermann Companies' expansion from 5,636 square feet to 10,590 square feet at 7701 Forsyth Blvd., the Pierre Laclede Center I.
Clayton, which saw office vacancy surge from 7.5% in the first months of 2020 to a pandemic high of 13.8% last year, is faring better than other St. Louis submarkets, said Tom Bajardi, an office broker for commercial real estate firm Sansone Group.
“I’m confident that Clayton is steady and good, a strong performer and will always be,” along with typically strong suburban submarkets like West County, Bajardi said. “The big question mark is on some sublease space, which will come back to landlords eventually, and will they have enough big users to absorb it? That's the question.”
Jim Mosby, executive managing director at Cushman, agreed that Clayton leads the region, but wasn't sure the latest report indicated a sustained turnaround.
"I think we're going to see some additional softening across all submarkets, Clayton included," Mosby said.
Downtown's vacancy rate reached 21% in the most recent quarter, higher than at any point last year, Cushman said.
It also saw negative absorption of 88,584 square feet.
Heading into the pandemic, downtown had posted vacancy rates below 19% for four consecutive quarters for the first time since 2002, Cushman said.
Read the full story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
