The incredible shrinking office market, Washington Business Journal, August 2, 2013

. . . a growing chorus of real estate and economic experts say the region is undergoing a profound shift that threatens to strip away the relative invulnerability that has insulated Washington from the extreme peaks and valleys most other office markets face.

Federal agencies and private companies alike are shedding large chunks of space in the name of efficiency, there’s millions of square feet of empty space like Victory Center on the market, and the region’s vacancy rate, hovering at nearly 16 percent according to Jones Lang LaSalle, hasn’t been this bloated in nearly two decades.

"The reality of the market is that it’s overbuilt right now, you can tell by the vacancy rates we’re sustaining. Demand is stalled and the supply’s too big and getting bigger,” said Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. “There’s a consolidation going on and the average office space is steadily diminishing. For several more years, there’s nothing pointing to an increase in office demand.” . . .

Heck, even Dr. Fuller--"Mr. NoVa Growth Forever!" and God's gift to developers (see the 2030 Group, which funds much of his research)--says office space per worker is declining!  It is not just Reston 2020 as we have told Board Chairman Sharon Bulova here, here, here, and here. 

Say it isn't so!

But it is, and this thorough article by Daniel Serowitz makes it pretty clear that office demand is weak and part of the reason is that space per office worker is shrinking.

Click here to read the rest of this thorough look at the Washington area office market:

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/print-edition/2013/08/02/the-incredible-shrinking-office-market.html?page=all

And still the Board, the Planning Commission, and DPZ refuse to lower the assumed office space per worker from 300GSF in the face of universal evidence that office space size is now less than 200GSF per office worker--and continuing to shrink.