High vacancy rates persist for MetroWest real estate market
Photo | Grant Welker
The software company MathWorks, which has offices in Natick, is one of the largest employers and tenants in a stretch of MetroWest along the Massachusetts Turnpike.
MetroWest offers millions of square feet of available office and laboratory space at far cheaper rates than places in Boston or Cambridge.
Yet, companies are still balking at making the move.
The area's market, stretching from Natick to Westborough, had a first-quarter vacancy rate of 20.1 percent, according to a report this week from Colliers International, a Boston real estate firm. The region, which Colliers measures as 10 communities, including Framingham, Hopkinton and Marlborough, has nearly 4 million square feet of available space.
MetroWest's office and lab market struggled in the first quarter, with 66,000 less square feet of occupied space from the previous quarter. The entire Boston region had a vacancy rate of 12.5 percent and added roughly 1 million square feet of occupied space during the quarter, Colliers reported.
Much of the regional growth took place in and immediately around Boston, with new space being occupied by the likes of Google, Wayfair, WeWork and State Street Corp. Farther-out suburbs have seen higher vacancy rates with some choosing to leave for a location closer to the center of the region, including Puma planning to leave Westford for Somerville and Sanofi — which has offices in Framingham and Westborough — planning a consolidated presence in Cambridge.
Worcester, meanwhile, with far less office and lab capacity to begin with, has a far tighter inventory. The city had a 9.7-percent vacancy rate in the quarter, adding roughly 49,000 square feet of occupied space.
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