While home sales were down in June, the garden office sector of the local real estate market continues to show strength, particularly along the busy Bluebonnet Boulevard and Jefferson Highway corridors.
A recent analysis of the submarket shows not a single vacant office building on the market for sale, according to Matthew Laborde of Elifin Realty, who says the demand is resulting in an increase in sale prices to as much as $200 per square foot for new construction.
Laborde recently listed a 2,600-square foot building in the 4300 block of Bluebonnet for sale. It was under contract to a law firm within two weeks and is expected to close soon.
While downtown remains an attractive location for many office tenants, Laborde and others believe new suburban office developments are selling as fast as developers can build them because they’re more practical in several respects.
“People want new, they want convenience, they don’t want to have to pay for parking and they want to own,” he says. “If you want between 2,000 and 10,000 square feet, there aren’t too many options downtown where you can own.”
The latest planned office park to join the growing list of developments—currently, there are eight office developments newly completed or in the construction or planning stages along Bluebonnet and Jefferson—is the Goodwood Office Park at 6651 Jefferson Highway.
When completed next year, the development will consist of four buildings totaling 18,000 square feet. Already, two of the buildings are leased. Two more, some 4,000 square feet each, are still available for lease.
Bernhard Normand Construction, which is doing the development, received approval from the Planning Commission for the office park in April and is planning to break ground in the next month.
“It’s location,” says Laborde, who is the leasing agent for the property. “This is where people want to be.”
