The National Observer | Real Estate Edition | May 19 | A closer look at tech-centric office markets

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It's easy to say markets with a big tech economy are struggling right now — and that's certainly not untrue — but there's a bit of nuance to which markets are facing the biggest challenges.

In the first quarter, tech leasing fell to a new low, comprising only 7.8% of demand, Savills Inc. recently found in a study. To compare, tech made up an average of 21.5% of signed transactions measuring more than 20,000 square feet between Q1 2020 and Q4 2021.

"I don’t expect that demand to pick back up" right away, Devon Munos, senior director and head of research platform initiatives at Savills, told me. "In addition to economics changing, these companies are still thinking through their remote work policies moving forward. We do see a lot of major tech employees asking their employees to come back — if that continues, that might give us more insight into these companies’ office space usage, but a lot of things are up in the air."

A couple of cities, unsurprisingly, are seeing most of their sublease space on the market now from technology companies — more than 70% of sublet space in San Francisco and Silicon Valley is from tech users, according to Savills.

Here are other top real estate stories from around the ACBJ network:

1. Amazon.com Inc.'s Fresh stores are the subject of lawsuits from landlords across the U.S. as the subsidiary of the e-commerce giant appears to be walking back some of its grocery-store plans.
2. America's suburbs continue to win the post-pandemic migration game, although Covid-19-era population movement is starting to recede.
3. Telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. is the latest corporate player to disclose plans for office real estate consolidation.
4. The Claremont Club & Spa in Berkeley, California, recently sold for $163.3 million.
5. A $2 billion luxury mixed-use development in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale, Arizona, is moving forward after the developer secured a major loan for the project.
6. How developer Darryl Shaw is looking to reimagine Ybor City's Seventh Avenue in Tampa, Florida.
7. Austrian wellness company The Therme Group is looking at real estate in Washington, D.C., to potentially plant its first "well-being resort" in the United States
8. Data from multiple brokerage reports illustrate how tough the national office market already is this year, with leasing activity continuing to slow, vacancy rising and the ever-looming threat of debt maturities.

Built by Ashley Fahey, editor of The National Observer: Real Estate. Reach me with tips, questions and feedback at afahey@bizjournals.com