By Brooke Jacobsen, Colliers The Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky office market is weathering the post-pandemic era with surprising nuance. While national headlines continue to focus on uncertainty and high vacancy, the local market is quietly seeing stable, albeit selective, activity, especially in healthcare and specialized user segments. After a slow winter, leasing activity across the region began to thaw in the second quarter of 2025. Year-to-date net absorption remains slightly negative, but market sentiment is gradually shifting, particularly among small to mid-size tenants. Most of the deal activity is coming from users in the 2,500- to 5,000-square-foot range, with several groups focused on healthcare and logistics services. Cincinnati’s Class B and C office space is seeing an unexpected level of demand, driven by affordability, location flexibility and users with highly specific space needs. Medical office continues to stand out as one of the most active sectors. Demand is strong across both urban and suburban submarkets, with notable traction in Cincinnati submarkets. Much of the recent healthcare-related activity has come from specialty practices, private groups and regional health systems looking to reposition their outpatient services. While Northern Kentucky offers value, many users are choosing to locate on the Cincinnati side …
ENCINITAS, CALIF. — A local, privately based partnership doing business as 605 3rd Street LLC has purchased an office building located at 605 3rd St. in Encinitas from GJS Properties LLC for $11 million. Originally constructed as a bank in the 1960s, the building offers 14,398 square feet of office space. Peter Curry and Owen Curry of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, while Conor Brennan of CBRE represented the buyer in the deal.
SEATTLE — Newmark has arranged a $435 million loan for the refinancing of Starbucks Center, the coffee giant’s nearly 1.5 million-square-foot headquarters campus located at 2401 Utah Ave. S in Seattle. Deutsche Bank provided the loan to the owner, a partnership between two local real estate companies, Nitze-Stagen & Co. Inc. and Daniels Real Estate. According to the property’s Wikipedia page, the main building was originally constructed in 1915 as a retail store for Sears, Roebuck & Co. Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) first took occupancy of the property in 1993. At that time, the property was known as SoDo Center after its namesake neighborhood, which is one of Seattle’s main industrial districts, per Wikipedia. Since then, the campus has undergone more than 60 expansions over the past three decades to accommodate the company’s growth, according to Newmark, which also notes that Starbucks has invested more than $300 million of its own capital in the Seattle campus to date. In addition, Starbucks recently signed a lease extension through 2038. Jonathan Firestone, Jordan Roeschlaub, Blake Thompson and Kevin Shannon led the transaction for Newmark. “The closing of this refinancing positions Starbucks Center for continued excellence as one of the city’s premier office assets,” …
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Lee & Associates’ Report: Q2 Net Absorption Declines Across All Property Sectors Except Multifamily
Lee & Associates’ 2025 Q2 North America Market Report looks back at shrinking (or negative) net absorption for industrial, office and retail sectors in the last quarter. Meanwhile, multifamily tenant demand beat previous expectations in the same three months, as a feared recession failed to materialize. The mix of factors for absorption varied by property type: industrial and office markets saw increases in vacancy, while competition for retail space remained high, even in the face of high-profile closures. Lee & Associates’ full market report is available to read here (plus detailed vacancy rates, cap rates by city, market rents, square footage information, information on Canadian markets and more). The recaps for industrial, office, retail and multifamily sectors below detail trends and outlooks for each property sector in the remainder of 2025. Industrial Overview: Vacancies Rise, Rent Growth Slows Concern over the impact of tariffs has added to slowing tenant growth in logistics and manufacturing across North America. But the continued easing demand has resulted in more choices and benefits for users that have been subjected to a prolonged stretch of steep rent growth. Vacancies in the United States have risen to 7.4 percent, a decade-long high, while deliveries continued to outpace tenant expansion. Net absorption fell …
PHOENIX — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the sale of Forty6Forty5, a Class A office building located at 4645 Cotton Center Blvd. in Phoenix. PRH XXXXV LLC, a Delaware limited liability company formed by a high-net-worth individual, acquired the asset from an undisclosed seller for $10 million. Situated within Cotton Center Business Park, the two-story building offers 116,858 square feet of office space. The buyer intends to relocate Legacy Capital Services and Shield Legal into a portion of the building while benefiting from passive income generated by existing tenants occupying 23 percent of the space. Chris Toci, Eric Wichterman and Mike Coover of Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets and Private Capital teams represented the seller. The sale of Forty5Forty5 is the last of a three-building portfolio within Cotton Center Business Park.
DALLAS — An affiliate of Bradford Cos. has acquired Uptown Tower, a 254,000-square-foot office building in Dallas. According to LoopNet Inc. the 12-story building at 4144 N. Central Expressway was originally constructed in 1982 and last renovated in 1994. The new ownership plans to implement a value-add program that will feature a redesigned lobby and a new fitness center and coworking lounge. The building was roughly 54 percent leased at the time of sale. Creighton Stark of Weitzman represented the seller, a private REIT, in the transaction. Richmond Collinsworth and Kevin Santaularia represented Bradford internally. HALL Structured Finance provided a $30.8 million acquisition loan for the deal that was arranged by Adam Hyman of Metropolis AMA Advisors.
ANAHEIM, CALIF. — ParkTerra and JEN Partners have acquired Axis, an office campus in Anaheim, from a joint venture between a global banking giant and Pendulum Property Partners for $62.5 million. CBRE National Office Partners’ Anthony DeLorenzo, Sammy Cemo and Bryan Johnson represented the seller. CBRE’s Greg Sullivan, Jennifer Whittington, David Dowd and Matt Didier also advised the seller on the transaction. Axis offers 306,664 square feet of office space at 2121-2170 Towne Centre Place, 2190 Town Centre Place and 2390 Orangewood Ave. The campus offers a creative office building tailored for owner-users, a residential redevelopment site and a high-end office asset.
NEW YORK CITY — Telecommunications giant Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has selected the PENN 2 office tower in Midtown Manhattan for its new corporate headquarters. The company will staff approximately 1,000 employees at its new office. Verizon signed a 19-year lease with the landlord, Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO), to occupy approximately 200,000 square feet of space on floors eight through 10. The timeline for Verizon’s occupancy at PENN 2 was not released. Josh Kuriloff, Peyton Horn, Heather Thomas and Kyle Ernest of Cushman & Wakefield represented Verizon in the lease negotiations. Glen Weiss, Josh Glick, Jared Silverman and Anthony Cugini represented Vornado on an internal basis. Located directly above the Penn Station public transit hub, PENN 2 offers direct access to 15 subway lines, the Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, PATH, Amtrak and the upcoming Metro-North Railroad, which is scheduled to debut in 2027. Other tenants at PENN 2 include Major League Soccer, MSG Entertainment Corp. (operator of nearby Madison Square Garden) and Universal Music Group, which recently signed an 88,000-square-foot lease at the tower. As part of the lease agreement, Verizon employees at PENN 2 will have exclusive access to more than 25,000 square feet of outdoor space at …
NEW YORK CITY — WeWork will open a 60,000-square-foot coworking space at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The space will encompass five of the 648,000-square-foot building’s 31 floors. Peter Riguardi, Clark Finney, Alexander Riguardi and Dana Goldman of JLL represented WeWork in the lease negotiations in conjunction with two of the company’s real estate leaders, Peter Greenspan and Whitney Anderson. Brad Gerla, Michael Rizzo and Alex Benisatto of CBRE, along with internal agent Anne Holker, represented the landlord, Am Trust RE. The opening is slated for December.
RED BANK, N.J. — Regional healthcare provider Hackensack Meridian Health has signed a 50,000-square-foot office lease in Red Bank, located near the Jersey Shore. The space is located within River Centre, a six-building, 668,107-square-foot campus. Jamie Drummond , Andrew Perrotti and Luke Reid of Newmark represented the landlord, Paramount Realty, in the lease negotiations. Suzanne Macnow of CBRE represented Hackensack Meridian.