Highlights

  • Midtown Manhattan’s Plaza District was Q4 2023’s most expensive office space submarket, with an average asking rent price of $125 per square foot.
  • Menlo Park and Mountain View – West submarkets followed, with average prices of $112 and $93 per square foot, respectively.
  • San Francisco and the Bay Area dominated the ranking in terms of number of entries, with six submarkets in the top 10.
  • Submarkets in the Western U.S. claimed 30 of the 50 most expensive submarkets by asking prices, with all but two being in California.
  • The Northeast logged 11 of the nation’s 50 priciest areas for office space, with submarkets from New York and Boston.
  • Florida, Texas and Washington, D.C. accounted for the nine Southern submarkets in the top 50.

In the ongoing transformation of office space, the previous year cemented the same trends toward higher quality properties serving as attractive collaboration hubs for employees. At the same time, the large number of maturing leases that were signed pre-pandemic is also exerting pressure on asking rates, promising to bring further changes to the market.

In this unique context, we at CommercialSearch analyzed where asking rent costs stood heading into 2024. Using data provided by commercial listing and research tool CommercialEdge, we looked into office listings across more than 1,300 submarkets throughout the U.S. to find out which were home to the most expensive office spaces in Q4 2023. Check out the top 10 most expensive submarkets below and read on for an expanded list of the top 50, as well as a regional breakdown.

Manhattan’s Plaza District Retains Title of Most Expensive Office Submarket

Midtown Manhattan’s Plaza District was the most expensive office submarket in Q4 2023, with the average asking price here resting at $125 per square foot of office space. The submarket also previously ranked as the priciest in Q4 2022, following two second-place finishes in the two prior years.

The Plaza District’s high price tag primarily comes down to its robust supply of high-quality Class A and trophy Manhattan office space. In fact, of the submarket’s 322 listed office spaces, 196 are Class A or A+, with an average price per square foot of more than $132. Top-tier office properties here include the Rockefeller Center, the recently renovated Time-Life Building and other prestigious landmarks that contributed to the Plaza District’s consistently high prices.

Up next, the podium was completed by two Bay Area submarkets. Menlo Park occupied the second spot — the same position that it earned in Q4 2022 — with an average asking price of $112 per square foot. Although Menlo Park may be best known as the home of Facebook parent Meta, it also hosts a plethora of other tech companies that help drive demand for quality office space. Similarly, that trait is shared by the Mountain View – West submarket, which landed at #3 with an average asking price of $93 per square foot of office space.

Overall, California dominated the list of the top 10 most expensive office submarkets by recording a total of seven entries. Besides the two podium finishers, four more Bay Area submarkets also made the cut — Palo Alto at #5 ($88 per square foot); Sunnyvale West at #6 ($87 per square foot); Redwood City at #8 ($84 per square foot); and neighboring Redwood Shores at #9 ($82 per square foot). Not to be outdone, Los Angeles also provided one of the Golden State’s entries in the upper echelons with Century City — a high-end, Westside business district and the most expensive area for Los Angeles office space — which closed out the top 10 list with average asking prices resting at $82 per square foot of space.

Notably, one Florida entry earned a spot among the top 10 priciest office submarkets in the U.S.: Coming in at #4, office space in Miami’s Brickell financial district goes went for an average of $90 per square foot. Prices here were driven up by a high concentration of trophy space, as 26 of the market’s 33 office space listings are Class A and or A+.

Finally, Lower Manhattan’s SoHo submarket landed at #7 with an average price of $84 per square foot of office space. In addition to being one of Manhattan’s richest cultural, artistic and culinary hotspots, the many boutique-style, high-end offices in SoHo contributed to it being the second — and final — New York City office space submarket to break into the top 10 most expensive in the country.

Overall, asking price averages in the top 10 ranged from the Plaza District’s $125 per square foot down to roughly $82 per square foot in Century City in LA. Otherwise, average prices among the 50 most expensive submarkets started at $56 per square foot.

Check out the full list of the 50 most expensive office submarkets in the U.S. in Q4 2023 and keep reading for a breakdown by region.

The Western U.S. claimed the most expensive submarkets by asking price by being home to 30 of the 50 priciest in the nation. In this case, California accounted for all but two of the 30 ranking submarkets in the region. Seattle was home to the remaining two.

The second-most-represented region in the top 50 was the Northeast with 11 entries. Six of these — including the top-10-ranking Plaza District and SoHo — were located in New York. The remaining five submarkets hailed from Boston.

Meanwhile, of the South’s nine entries, five are in Florida, while Texas and Washington, D.C. recorded two entries each.

San Francisco Metro Home to 20 of Most Expensive Submarkets in Western U.S.

California’s dominance on the list primarily came down to a series of pricey areas in San Francisco, as well as the wider Bay Area. More precisely, among the metro area’s 20 entries, asking prices for San Francisco office space ranged from $59 per square foot in the Civic Center area to $112 in Menlo Park. In addition to the aforementioned suburban areas, the Golden Gate City’s big-budget submarkets also included central areas, such as Presidio Heights at #11, the Northern Waterfront at #15 and the South Financial District at #22.

Likewise, prices in the Bay Area office market ranged from $60 in Emeryville to up to $93 per square foot in Mountain View – West. Excluding San Francisco, the region contributed six of the 30 total Western U.S. entries, with tech-heavy submarkets — such as Mountain View East and Cupertino — also earning their places in the ranking.

Further down the coast, eight of the Western U.S. submarkets to rank in the top 50 hailed from Los Angeles. Most are affluent areas in Westside, including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades/Malibu, the Jefferson Corridor, West LA, Westwood and Hollywood. Average asking rates among this group ranged from $58 to $68 per square foot.

Lastly, Seattle contributed the final two Western submarkets ranking among the 50 most expensive by asking price. Specifically, Seattle’s Denny Triangle reached #45 by logging a price per square foot of just under $59. Being one of the foremost areas for high-tier Seattle office space besides downtown, Denny Triangle is a young professional’s paradise, combining high-rises with upscale shopping and cuisine. Then, office space around Lake Union was Emerald City’s second-most expensive, with average prices here coming up to $57 per square foot to grant the submarket a 48th-place finish nationally.

Highest-Priced Expensive Office Submarkets in Northeast Located in NYC & Boston

In the Northeast, expensive office locations were distributed between New York City and Boston.

First, NYC was home to six of the region’s priciest locations. In addition to the Plaza District and SoHo, Manhattan entries also included office space in the Turtle Bay, Gramercy Park and Times Square-Hell’s Kitchen submarkets. But, Manhattan is not the only NYC borough to feature in the ranking as one Brooklyn office space submarket also made the list: Brooklyn Heights averaged $60 per square foot across 17 listings in Q4 2023, making it the 36th most expensive submarket by asking price nationally and NYC’s fifth entry overall.

Boston’s Back Bay was the most expensive submarket in the Northeast outside Manhattan, reaching 13th with a price per square foot of $76 across 54 office space listings. Other than the renowned brownstone neighborhood, four other Boston office space submarkets also made the cut with prices ranging from $70 to $56 per square foot. Office space in Boston’s highest-density central business district submarket claimed the highest spot of these, ranking 18th, while the remaining downtown area reached #50. Other less central areas in the Boston metro also claimed high prices, with the Route 128 Central submarket reaching 29th and the Seaport Innovation District stopping at #38, respectively.

Florida Logs 5 of South’s 9 Most Expensive Areas for Office Space

Florida accounted for five of the nine Southern U.S. submarkets to rank among the country’s 50 most expensive, with all but one being located in Miami. Besides fourth-place Brickell, Miami Beach (#14), Miami North (#17) and Miami’s Central Business District (#21) were the other pricey submarkets for office space in Miami.

In addition to these submarkets, office space in West Palm Beach-Boca Raton logged a $59 price tag per square foot, making the area the state’s fifth-most expensive. As more companies (as well as professionals) turn to Florida, the state’s primary office markets are also becoming increasingly sought after — a fact reflected by their respective average asking prices for office space.

Texas was also represented among the South’s most expensive office submarkets by two Austin entries. At #27, asking prices for Austin office space in the city’s East submarket averaged $65 per square foot, while the city’s downtown made it to 33th with a price tag of $62.

Asking prices for office space in the submarket anchored by Washington, D.C.’s Seventh Street stood at $60 per square foot in Q4 last year, placing it as the 39th-most expensive in the U.S. Directly neighboring the National Mall and some of D.C.’s most recognizable landmarks, office space in this submarket logs consistently high asking prices. Plus, just to the east, offices in the city’s NoMa neighborhood go for $57 per square foot on average, making it D.C.’s second presence on the list and the 47th-most expensive overall.

Methodology

The analysis for this ranking was based on data we compiled on December 1, 2023, from CommercialEdge. We considered all U.S. office submarkets where there were at least three listings of office space for rent during Q4 2023 for a total of 1,372 submarkets, as defined by CommercialEdge. For each of these subdivisions, lease rates were averaged to asking rents per square foot per year and weighted by square footage. The data includes only office properties equal to or larger than 25,000 square feet.

For the purposes of this article, we ranked the 50 highest Q4 2023 average full-service equivalent asking rates per square foot per year.

While every effort was made to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of the information presented herein, the information is provided “as is” and neither CommercialSearch nor CommercialEdge can guarantee that the information provided is complete. This study is for general informational purposes only. It does not constitute and should not be relied upon as a basis for any investment decision. The information presented is subject to change without notice and may or may not apply depending on the circumstances. Always contact a qualified investment consultant if you need advice regarding buying, selling or otherwise transacting in any investment.