The Washington, DC office market currently consists of 808 buildings, over 25,000 square feet, totaling approximately 156.7 million square feet of rentable space. As of February 2022, the unemployment rate for the District of Columbia decreased to 5.6%, while unemployment for the Washington, DC Metropolitan area remained flat at 3.6%. The national unemployment rate decreased to 3.6%.
The DC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) added 123,900 jobs from Feb 2021-Feb 2022, representing 4.0% growth YOY. Sectors adding the most jobs were Leisure & Hospitality with 65,900 followed by Professional & Business Services with 19,500; while the Government added 16,300. The largest public sector lease executed this quarter was a short-term extension for 477,735 square feet by the GSA – Department of Justice at 450 5th Street, NW, in the East End submarket. Foley & Lardner executed the largest private sector lease with a 15-year, 95,000-square-foot renewal at 3000 K Street, NW – Washington Harbour East, in the Georgetown submarket. 1275 New Jersey Avenue, SE (in Capitol Riverfront) delivered this quarter. The 330,000-square-foot, Class A building delivered 88% leased. No additional buildings delivered, nor broke ground, in the first quarter. There were five sales transactions this quarter, totaling $662,551,651. The largest sale was 601 D Street, NW – Patrick Henry Building, trading to Nuveen from Tishman Speyer for $375,431,522 ($731 psf).