Columbus Office Market
The Columbus office market began 2025 with 118,460 SF of negative absorption. The overall market’s negative absorption increased the first quarter vacancy by 50 basis points to 21.9%, though that first quarter number is down from 2024’s cumulative total average vacancy of 22.8%. At 532,203 SF, the first quarter of 2025 saw the lowest amount of leasing activity in the Columbus office market for a first quarter total since 2021. After the leasing activity for 2024 came to 2.4 million SF, well short of the 16-year historical annual average of 2.9 million SF, the slow start in 2025 began right where the previous year ended…tepid. The overall average asking rental rate for the first quarter of 2025 grew to $21.75/SF, a $0.15/SF increase from where the yearly rate stood at the end of 2024. The yearly average of $21.60/SF for 2024 was the highest in the market’s history up until this first quarter tally.
Download Columbus Office Market Report 1Q25
Columbus Industrial Market
In the first quarter of 2025, leasing activity was higher than the previous two quarters, after notching approximately 5.2 million SF, up from 3.3 million SF in the fourth quarter of 2024. The industrial market tallied 2.2 million SF of positive net absorption in the first quarter. As a result, vacancy decreased by 80 basis points from the previous quarter to 8.6%. Industrial direct average asking rents were 1.7% lower than the first quarter of 2024. The direct average asking rent for the first quarter stood at $5.85/SF, which remained flat from the fourth quarter of 2024.