Real Estate
US Office Space Is on Track to Shrink for First Time on Record
- More offices are being demolished or repurposed than built
- JLL says it’s likely to be first net decline on record
A person works in an office building in San Francisco, California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Office buildings are poised to set records for a bad reason this year: The amount of office space in the US is declining for what is likely the first time in history.
A lack of new construction and a plethora of aging office space being repurposed or destroyed will lower the amount of office space, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Less than 5 million square feet (465,000 square meters) of new offices broke ground in the US so far this year, while 14.7 million square feet has been removed, often to be converted into buildings for other uses.