Vacancy rates inched down to 21.8 percent in the first quarter from 22.4 percent at the end of last year, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing data from JLL. The data also showed 140,000 square feet of positive net absorption in the first quarter.
One big help: conversions to labs. Dropbox, which leases space in The Exchange in Mission Bay, reached an agreement with KKR, the owner, to buy out a portion of its lease for $32 million. While it isn’t clear how much of the 660,000 square feet is now available, it’s now counted as part of the city’s lab inventory.
JLL also tracked companies that moved, such as Uber, Retool and Benchling. Lab conversions and moves in Mission Bay reduced the vacancies there to 19.4 percent, from 30 percent last quarter.
Moves in SoMa and Mission Bay balanced some exits, such as Slack, which put more than 200,000 square feet of office space at 45 Fremont Street on the market for sublease, months after its CEO said efforts to force employees to stop working from home are “doomed.”
Asking rents, meantime, have barely budged, at $79.77 per square foot compared with $79.79.
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Commercial
San Francisco
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