MetroWest office market struggling with high vacancy
Photo | Grant Welker
In Westborough, eClinicalWorks has listed for lease a vacant 193,000-square-foot office.
Available office space remains abundant in MetroWest, with vacancy rates in the high teens in the second quarter of the year, according to property reports released this week.
The real estate analyst Colliers International reported office vacancy rates of 18.5% in its survey, with a 16.3% rate reported by the commercial real estate agency Hunneman. Hunneman reported a 18.4% vacancy rate for Framingham and Natick, who combine to account for a major portion of MetroWest's office market.
Both firms define their broadest MetroWest areas as "Route 495 West," with Colliers accounting for a broader geographic area including Framingham and Natick, and Hunneman separating those two communities.
MetroWest continues to have some of the highest office vacancy rates in Greater Boston despite some of the cheapest rents. A $20.59 per-square-foot average for 495 West, as measured by Hunneman, compares to trends of more than $60 in some Boston neighborhoods and more than $80 in East Cambridge, which includes Kendall Square.
The 495 West industrial market has fared better, with a vacancy rate of 9.7%, according to Hunneman, which is more in line with the regional average. The Framingham and Natick industrial vacancy rate is 2.8%, the lowest in Greater Boston.
High demand for industrial space in the area was highlighted by the March sale of a FedEx distribution building in Natick for just under $52 million, as well as the sale of a Milford Amazon distribution facility in June for $33.6 million. In Northborough, a 220,000-square-foot warehouse built without a tenant was 70% leased by its opening this spring, attracting Maintenance Supply Headquarters, a home supplier, and Metrie, which makes home moldings and decorations.
As for the office inventory, one major vacancy is being taken off the market. A 287,000-square-foot vacancy in Maynard, a former Stratus Technologies office, was bought in early June with plans to convert the site to an international school.
Maynard town officials said they've met with the president of the Beijing Royal School, which is based in China and whose graduates the school says regularly attend top-ranked colleges in the United States and elsewhere. The school is planning a kindergarten through 12th-grade school of 300 to 500 students opening as early as the fall of 2020.
The site was bought for $5 million by a limited liability corporation registered to Jun Pan and Ming Jin of Cambridge. The building once housed offices of Digital Equipment Corp. and later Stratus before that company moved its offices to Mill & Main, a mill complex in downtown Maynard.
Worcester's office market had a 9.2% occupancy rate for the second quarter, Colliers reported.
Nationally, the first-quarter office vacancy rate was 12.5%, its lowest level since 2007, according to the real estate firm CBRE.
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