While DFW office availability has continued to mount, some submarkets have performed better than others

Like all major office markets, the sector’s shift has caused total DFW office availability (direct and sublet) to rise precipitously. As of Q4 2023, class A availability came in at 32.3%, up from 24.9% at year-end 2019. This is also slightly ahead of 2023’s class A and B average of 29.9%. While this 7.4% average increase since year-end 2019 for the market is significant, some of DFW’s submarkets fared better, seeing only a minimal rise, while a few saw improvement. Of DFW’s core submarkets, Central Expressway, LBJ Freeway, and Allen-McKinney saw availability rise but are still below the total share for the region.

This is primarily due to more resilient space demand attributable to easier access from their close-in suburban locations. In comparison to the other submarkets, availability came down slightly in the high-demand Preston Center submarket, even with a major new delivery over the period. Other areas, like Fort Worth CBD and West SW Fort Worth, also performed much better than average in total availability, as well as improving slightly due to their limited new development and a more local serving office base.

Submarkets that saw availability rise significantly all had unique demand challenges. These included the ongoing slippage in demand for Dallas’ CBD which carries extra weight due to its large share of inventory, Uber’s retrenchment in emerging Deep Ellum, and the long-term redevelopment of EDS’ large campus into a life sciences hub and the re-tenanting JCPenney’s former HQ in West Plano.