Office leasing in Orange County is picking up, with availability shrinking and more tenants pulling the trigger on new space.
About 1.9 million square feet of office leases across OC closed from July through September, up 23 percent from the 1.5 million square feet signed in the prior quarter, according to a Savills report.
It’s also an improvement from last year’s third quarter, when 1.8 million square feet of leases were signed. Over the last five years, the average has come out to 1.7 million square feet of office deals each quarter.
With tenants taking up more square footage, availability rates have dipped slightly, but remain high because of companies putting space up for sublease.
Across the county, 24 percent of all office space was available, a slight improvement from the all-time high of 24.7 percent reported in the second quarter. But the figures are well above the 17.6 percent availability rate reported at the end of 2019.
Boot Barn signed the largest lease across Orange County in the third quarter, taking about 116,000 square feet at 17100 Laguna Canyon Road in Irvine Spectrum. It was also the only deal larger than 100,000 square feet.
Irvine Spectrum continues to be Orange County’s premier submarket, with the highest asking rents and the second-lowest availability rate.
Average monthly asking rents for offices in Irvine Spectrum came to $3.19 a square foot in the first quarter, above the county average of $2.81 a foot.