The Washington, DC office market currently consists of 787 buildings, over 25,000 square feet, totaling approximately 145.6 million square feet of rentable space. As of February 2019, the unemployment rate for the District of Columbia decreased to 5.5%, while the Washington, DC Metropolitan area increased to 3.5%. The national unemployment rate decreased to 3.8%.
The DC Metropolitan area gained 20,700 net new jobs from February 2018-February 2019, representing 0.6% growth YOY. Leisure & Hospitality lead the private sector with 13,900 new jobs; while the Government gained 2,400. The largest public sector lease executed this quarter was a renewal by the GSA – Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for 161,000 square feet at 131 M Street, NE – One NoMa Station in the NoMa submarket. Chemonics signed the largest private sector lease with a 290,000-square-foot pre-lease at 1275 New Jersey Avenue, SE – The Yards in the Capitol Riverfront submarket. There were ten sale transactions in DC, totaling $820,890,276. The largest sale was 2175 K Street, NW trading to the Delegation of the European Union to the U.S. for $102,990,276 ($755 psf).