Charlotte’s overall office vacancy hit an all-time high in the second quarter of 2024.

A report released this month by commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield shows the market’s overall office vacancy reaching 24.7% last quarter, compared to about 21% in Q1. In fact, the overall vacancy rate had hovered between 19% and 21% for the last several quarters, according to previous CBJ reporting.

“This is a historic high for vacancy in the market. The last time it came close was after the great financial crisis in 2008,” said JP Price, Cushman & Wakefield’s senior research analyst for the Carolinas.

Price said the April delivery of 110 East, a 370,000-square-foot, 24-story office tower in South End, is part of the reason for the increase. The building, developed by Florida-based Stiles Corp.’s and California-based Shorenstein Properties, delivered with no pre-leased tenants.

“Pre-leasing has really dropped off in this market, so that was not unexpected,” he said. “If you were to remove that, the subset of vacancy there would be about 3.3%.”

Charlotte Business Journal