Post Road Executive Park at 5 Boston Post Road West in Marlborough is one of many suburban office buildings with available space.
Thomas Grillo
Real Estate Editor- Boston Business Journal
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Office vacancies in Greater Boston’s suburbs fell one percentage point during the first quarter. But there’s still nearly 20 million square feet — the equivalent of twice the office space in all of Cambridge — available in the suburbs, according to a new report by JLL.
The overall availability rate — the amount of space that is empty today combined with offices that will soon be empty — fell slightly in the first quarter to 22.3 percent, down from 23.4 percent for the same period one year ago.
“Some suburban companies are moving to Cambridge and there’s all the buzz about the Seaport District,” said Garry Holmes, president of R.W. Holmes Realty Co. in Wayland. “We’re also seeing the same people who worked at EMC and live in the suburbs launching startups. And they’re convinced the in-vogue thing to do for hiring is to have an office in Seaport. As a result, lots of those startups are bypassing the suburbs and it’s having an impact out here.”
The South market had the best improvement as the availability rate fell to 22.6 percent, from January through March, down from 26 percent for the same period last year. Northwest of Boston the availability rate was 21.5 percent in the first quarter, down slightly from 22.7 percent last year. Along Route 128/Massachusetts Turnpike, the availability rate slipped to 15.5 percent from 17.8 percent one year ago. At Route 495/Massachusetts Turnpike, office availability dropped to 25.8 percent in the first quarter, down from 27.7 percent one year ago.
On the flip side, other submarkets saw availability rise. Route 495 South had the worst performance as availability soared to 28.3 percent in the first quarter, up from 23 percent last year. North of Boston, the availability rate inched up to 19.9 percent from 18.9 percent in 2013. At 495 North, availability increased to 29.5 percent from 28.6 percent last year.
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