Market Reports

By Mike Homa, R&R Realty Group Five years later and businesses are still adjusting to the new work environment brought on by the COVID pandemic. Omaha’s office space market is seeing a shift in how companies attract employees back into the office. With remote and hybrid work now widely accepted, developers and employers have realized that providing traditional office spaces is no longer enough to entice workers. Instead, they are focusing on creating environments that offer a blend of professional, personal and recreational amenities, transforming office spaces into lifestyle destinations.  To make coming to the office more attractive, developers are offering amenities that cater to employees’ holistic needs. In some office parks, facilities such as onsite daycare centers are becoming a reality. These allow working parents the convenience of dropping off their children close to where they work, reducing commute time and providing peace of mind. It’s an amenity that goes beyond the typical office needs, addressing a significant aspect of employees’ personal lives. Green spaces are another amenity we see being increasingly incorporated into the surroundings of new buildings and broader development areas. We see outdoor spaces in office parks like Fountain Ridge Office Park, which offers amphitheater-style seating …

By Kristi Andersen and Melissa Torrez, CBRE The office market remains one of the most uncertain commercial real estate sectors across the country. Facing declining asset values, rising interest rates and the increase of remote and hybrid work, many of the nation’s office markets are struggling.  Key indicators that typically track the health of the market include net absorption, rental rates and vacancy rates. Not surprisingly, given the recent challenges, net absorption of office space nationwide is currently negative, rents have gone down and vacancy is high. However, Omaha continues to buck those trends. A solid, steady economy The midwestern city boasts a diverse economy with agriculture, food processing, insurance, transportation, healthcare and education all being leading drivers. Warren Buffett calls Omaha home, as do several Fortune 500 corporations such as Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific Railroad, Mutual of Omaha and Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc.  The Omaha economy consistently outperforms other metro areas, particularly during economic downturns. In December, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for counties and metropolitan areas. Douglas County, the most populous county in Nebraska, had the highest annual GDP growth at 9.2 percent for U.S. counties with populations greater than …

By Mike Rensch, Investors Realty The Omaha office market is facing an increasing amount of sublease space, which is having a significant impact on what spaces tenants prefer to lease right now. This is directly affecting all aspects of the overall office market as well. As the second quarter came to a close, the direct vacancy rate was 7.4 percent, compared with 7.6 percent in the second quarter of 2022.  With that said, those numbers do not paint the whole picture because they do not account for the amount of sublease space on the market. The availability rate (which includes direct space and sublease space available) was at 9.8 percent compared with 8.4 percent in the second quarter of 2022. We see this trend continuing for the time being as companies grapple with whether or not to bring their employees back to the office.    At the end of the second quarter, there was 841,000 square feet of sublease space available in Omaha, up from 723,000 square feet at the end of the second quarter of 2022. This represents a 14 percent increase in sublease space over the past year. It reached its peak of 919,000 square feet of available …

By Eric Rose and Erick Tjarks, Cresa The Omaha office market proved to be somewhat insular from the effects of the many factors the real estate industry has experienced since 2020 (COVID-19, the hybrid work-from-home model, discussions of impending recession to name a few). Although down year-over-year, which given the recent interest rate hikes is expected, market sales volume remains above-average over the surveyed period going back to 2007. Though, this transaction volume dropped precipitously in the second half of 2022 and has continued to be slow in early 2023.  However, the local market has seen pockets of increased activity, as Northwest Omaha saw heightened transactional volume, with Midtown Omaha, downtown Council Bluffs and suburban West Dodge following suit. As showcased above, market cap rates have largely accounted for interest rate hikes and are currently stable but subject to future interest rate increases. These statistics all point to a stable market, with fundamental performance on solid footing.   However, it should be noted that, according to CoStar, 2022 is only the second year on record when demolitions outpaced gross deliveries, with only 93,000 square feet of net deliveries Omaha ranked in the bottom 10 of the top 60 office markets …