Quarterly leasing activity for Fairfield County”™s office market totaled 544,000 square feet during the first quarter of this year, according to new data from CBRE. That is a 2% decline from the fourth quarter of 2021, but it is also a 47% year-over-year increase and 1% ahead of the five-year quarterly average.
The availability rate during the first quarter increased to 26.5%, up 60 basis points (bps) from the previous quarter and down 10 bps from one year ago; it was also lower than the pandemic-era high of 26.9% set in mid-2021. Four of the seven Fairfield County submarkets experienced positive absorption, most notably the Greenwich CBD with 21,000 square feet that resulted in lower availability by 100 bps to 6.4%.
The volume of available sublease space in the first quarter totaled 2.43 million square feet, or 23% of all available space. This uptick was fueled by Gartner Group”™s subleased space becoming available at 700 Fairfield Ave. in Stamford.
The quarter”™s top transaction was Indeed”™s renewal of is 150,273-square-foot space at 177 Broad St. in Stamford. The largest original leasing activity was the 78,313-square-foot space acquired by the Financial Accounting Foundation at 801 Main Ave. in Norwalk.
The Stamford CBD had the highest leasing level among Fairfield County”™s submarkets at 199,000 square feet, besting the five-year average by 2%. This performance was fueled by smaller transactions ”“ United Rentals”™ 51,194-square-foot lease at 100 First Stamford Place was the only deal in this submarket during the quarter that exceeded 50,000 square feet.
The Greenwich CBD saw less activity than its Stamford counterpart, with 44,000 square feet ”“ the submarket missed the five-year average by 16%. In comparison, the Greenwich non-CBD totaled 50,000 square feet of transaction activity and bested the five-year average by 80%. And the Central Fairfield submarket rang up 107,000 square feet in transaction activity, which was 8% greater than the five-year average.
The quarter”™s average asking rent was $34.34 per square foot, mostly flat from the previous quarter but down 2% from one year earlier. The Eastern Fairfield submarket had the lowest average asking rent at $19.33 per square foot while the Greenwich CBD had the highest at $89.33 per square foot.
Photo: Downtown Stamford by Daniel Torres Borrato / Flickr Creative Commons
