Miami-Dade Office Availability Fell to 14.6% in Q3 as Design District Office Projects Move Forward

Miami-Dade's office market kept tightening in the third quarter, according to two broker reports released October 5. Savills put countywide office availability at 14.6 percent, down 1.2 percentage points over the past year, with average asking rents of $68.50 per square foot per year, up 8.4 percent, per Commercial Observer. CBRE's Q3 figures show asking rents up 10.0 percent year over year, with vacancy down 90 basis points and availability down 110 basis points. The two firms track different inventories, so the rent figures differ.

Where the leasing happened

Leasing slowed to 1.1 million square feet in the quarter, per Savills. The bulk was split between the affordable Airport West submarket, at 28 percent of activity, and Brickell, at 25.2 percent. Savills puts average asking rents in Brickell and Coconut Grove at more than $90 a square foot. That is above the $79 Brickell figure published here earlier from a different report; the two use different submarket definitions, so compare like with like. Google added 10,000 square feet at its 1450 Brickell Avenue office. CBRE reported construction underway grew by 1.4 million square feet from the prior quarter.

The Design District is adding offices

• Sweetbird North broke ground September 30. The roughly 120,000-square-foot, eight-story building from Miami Design District Associates and Raycliff Capital is anchored by a 55,000-square-foot lease from Atria Health and Research Institute on floors 3 to 5. Josh Harris's 26North Partners will take another floor. Completion is expected in 2028.
• The Ursa is back. Commercial Observer reports the project at 30 NE 39th Street is “being resurrected” with new partner BH3 Management joining Dacra and L Catterton Real Estate. The 2022 plan “failed to land office tenants and construction financing.” The new version is 20 stories with 250,000 square feet of office, a groundbreaking planned for next year and completion in 2029.

My read

Keep in mind that 14.6 percent is a countywide average. Individual submarkets can sit well above or below it, so if you are leasing or buying office space, ask for your own submarket's figure before you negotiate. For homeowners, I read these reports as support for the neighborhoods where finance and health firms are taking space: Brickell, Coconut Grove and now the Design District. A 55,000-square-foot medical lease brings daily workers into a district known for retail. I would not treat the Ursa as a sure thing yet. Its first version stalled for lack of tenants and financing, and there has been no comment on pre-leasing for the new one.