Charlotte’s office availability climbs to historic high as new Class A projects continue to deliver

In Q4 2022, the Queen City’s availability rate reached a record-setting 22.2%, up 550 basis points (bps) from 16.7% reported in Q4 2021. Despite this spike in availability, sublease space decreased slightly from last quarter to 2.7 million square feet (msf) but remains higher than a year ago when 2.3 msfwas reported. The rise in available space is due in part to a swell of Class A office buildings under constructionwith2.0 msfnow underway, of which only 6.1% is currently preleased. Construction continues to ramp up in desirable areas such as the Charlotte Central Business District (CBD) and South End as developers respond to the overall flight to quality from existing tenants. The most substantial delivery on the horizon is the new Duke Energy Plaza located at 525 S Tryon Street. This 40-story, 1.0 msfoffice tower, which is nearing completion, will house approximately 4,400 employees and allow the company to reduce its existing real estate footprint with plans to sell the Duke Energy Center located at 550 South Tryon Street, subsequently adding 1.5 msfof available office space to the market.

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