JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The demand for office space downtown is declining with vacancy hitting its highest in nearly a decade according to a new report by CBRE, a commercial real estate company. But there’s hope just around the corner.
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“We’ve been here for over 12 years and we developed our spot here. So, it seems to be growing. Everything is building around the courthouse,” Andrew Ference, the owner of On The Fly, said. He serves the lunch rush Monday through Friday but agrees he would like to see more people downtown.
“Absolutely I would love to see more workers. More workers are good.”
According to CBRE, nearly 26% of office space sits empty in the Northbank. Meanwhile, more than 26% is vacant on the Southbank. The report showed a shift in work moving to suburban areas like the Southside, which has about half of downtown’s office vacancy at nearly 13%. The Beaches had single-digits at 3% office vacancy.
Action News Jax reported last October when Lori Boyer, the CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority, said the high vacancy was due to the increase in remote workers. She announced plans to turn that space into residential.
READ: Downtown Investment Authority symposium to bring more living spaces to downtown
“Downtown is focused on accommodating as much of that demand as possible,” she said last year.
The Wells Fargo building is a staple of the downtown skyline and is currently 14% vacant according to its managing company which said some clients recently moved out. Demand is also down across downtown according to another report.
Avison Young, another real estate company, reported it took on average 23 months to lease out office space downtown, which compares to the 15-month average nationwide.
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