Cleveland Real Estate Market Reports

Cleveland Office Market

The Cleveland office market posted over 1.0 million SF of positive absorption in 4Q25—after two quarters of losses—driven by the delivery and occupancy of the 1.0 million SF Sherwin-Williams HQ in the CBD, which pushed vacancy down 60 bps to 22.7% quarter-over-quarter. Absent of that outlier, the overall market in the fourth quarter stayed relatively flat. Leasing activity in the fourth quarter was 220,844 SF—a huge drop after a solid third quarter. The fourth quarter’s total was the second lowest since the fourth quarter of 2021’s 193,150 SF. In fact, in the last 17 years, the yearly 2025 leasing activity total of 1.55 million SF was the second lowest, with the year 2021 the only one with less activity. The overall average asking rental rate increased by $0.28/SF quarter over quarter to $21.69/SF. As a result, the final 2025 total ticked up by $0.12/SF to $21.31/SF, and the year-over-year asking rent growth rate was elevated to 3.8%. As Class B buildings increasingly become targets for conversion and a flight to quality mentality persists, rates should continue to rise.

Cleveland Industrial Market

The Cleveland industrial market posted positive absorption of 658,286 SF in the fourth quarter of 2025—after five straight quarters of negative absorption. Despite key build-to-suit deliveries and market occupations which paced the market’s positive absorption in the fourth quarter, the addition of over 1.6 million SF to inventory caused the vacancy rate to increase by 30 points from the previous quarter to 5.8%, the highest quarterly vacancy rate since the third quarter of 2016. The overall vacancy rate for 2025 was 5.2%, the highest year-end mark since 2017’s 5.3%. The more than 2.7 million SF in negative absorption for 2025 was the most space given back in over 20 years. The market’s industrial direct average asking rent contracted year-over-year in 2025 by negative 3.6%. The average asking rent for the year was $5.97/SF, down from 2024’s final tally of $6.19/SF, but the second highest in the last 17 years. The fourth quarter saw a direct average asking rent of $6.01/SF, which was up by $0.06/SF from the previous quarter’s total.