Columbia’s commercial market improving, Q1 report shows

Conditions are showing slight improvement in the Columbia commercial office market, with vacancy rates slightly declining to 12.7 % in first quarter 2022 on the strength of more than 200,000 square feet of leasing activity, according to a market report released Wednesday by Lee & Associates | Maryland. Last year ended with a 13.5% vacancy rate, even though 315,000 square feet of space was leased in the fourth quarter. Negative absorption dropped from 60,000 to 14,000 square feet of space.