Do the Stats Tell the Real Story of DFW Office Gross Absorption?

By Younger Partners Research Director Steve Triolet

No one statistic tells the whole story of a market and this is certainly the case for Far North Dallas in regard to office net absorption in 2019.  While Far North Dallas is one of the key submarkets for the DFW you wouldn’t be able to tell that from the net absorption statistics for 2019 (YTD).  While net absorption is a currently a negative 216,331 square feet for Far North Dallas, the gross absorption (all of the move-ins, whether leased or owner-occupied excluding move-outs is the highest in the market at over 2.5 million square feet).  

This is another example of new properties drawing tenants away from old inventory to newer construction.  In the case of Far North Dallas, key move-outs from HPE and DXC Technology both leaving 5400 Legacy to go into Platinum Park and Cityline, respectively, resulted in over 1 million square feet of net absorption.  For those not aware, 5400 Legacy is the former EDS/Perot and Hewlett Packard headquarters and at 1,587,458 square feet is currently the largest contiguous block of vacant Class A space in the US.

The other two submarkets that stand out in 2019 from a gross absorption standpoint also include large levels of new construction.  Mid-cities has the new American Airlines campus that just completed construction and Las Colinas has several Cypress Waters projects and Pioneer Natural Resources which is scheduled for completion before the end of the year.