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A view of Century City Center, center building, under construction in Century City. Office leasing in the neighborhood is unusually robust. The greater Los Angeles office rental market started the year with a turbulent first quarter and historically high vacancies as tenant demand was persistently soft in spite of more robust return-to-office policies coming from managers.
A notable exception was Century City, which is experiencing tight occupancy and some of the highest rents in the West. Advertisement Countywide, though, overall office vacancy reached a new high of 24.2%, real estate brokerage CBRE said.
When "shadow" office space that is leased but not occupied is considered, overall availability is more than 29% — about triple what is considered a healthy market balance between landlord and tenant interests. Real estate experts hoped for better at the end of 2024 as the leasing market that had been lagging since the COVID-19 pandemic began showed signs of recovery, including more companies calling for workers to return to their desks. Then came the devastating wildfires and economic uncertainty caused by President Trump's global tariffs.
Century City Center is nearly fully leased even though it isn't slated to open until early next year, real estate broker Gary Weiss of LA Realty Partners said. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement "We were more optimistic heading into 2025," CBRE property broker John Zanetos said, as the county office market saw year-end leases signed by some good-sized tenants including toy makers Mattel and Jazwares.
The January wildfires that knocked the city back on its heels put many business decisions on pause. Later in the quarter, confusion about tariffs and potential trade wars introduced another element of uncertainty, said Michael Soto, vice president of research in the western region for real state brokerage Savills. Advertisement Real estate analysts are watching "very closely" to see whether there.
.. Roger Vincent.
