Office

By Melissa Molyneaux, Executive Vice President, Colliers Northern Nevada’s office market has continued to post strong fundamentals this year. Positive tenant demand has improved vacancy in recent quarters, though an uptick in available sublease space could impact market-wide vacancy in the future. The Reno-Sparks region has also seen a handful of new speculative office construction starts that will add trophy office and medical office space to the downtown and South Meadows submarkets.  Strong economic recovery has been evident this year as Nevada reached a new employment peak of nearly 1.5 million jobs in June. Washoe County’s population has grown an impressive 17.1 percent since 2010, to 500,000 people. A study by Woods and Poole Economics estimates the area will reach 764,000 people by 2060. Market-wide vacancy rates dropped to 10.6 percent in the third quarter of 2022, down 200 basis points year over year. Downtown vacancy fell 310 basis points to 11.7 percent, while suburban vacancy fell 180 basis points to 10.3 percent in the same period. Vacancy has continued to improve since the onset of the pandemic, though the Reno area has started to see an increase in available sublease space hitting the market. About one quarter of all …