{"id":281339,"date":"2026-04-23T02:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/281339\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:43:12","slug":"more-than-one-third-of-downtown-oakland-office-space-is-empty-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/281339\/","title":{"rendered":"More than one-third of downtown Oakland office space is empty, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 38% of Oakland\u2019s downtown office space was empty in the first quarter of the year, according to a new report<\/a> from the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The findings, first reported by the East Bay Times<\/a>, show that Oakland\u2019s vacancy rate remains stubbornly high six years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oakland isn\u2019t alone in this problem, the paper reported: vacancy rates in downtown San Francisco and downtown San Jose are hovering at 31%. But while San Francisco and San Jose have seen slight declines in their vacancy rates over the past year, Oakland\u2019s has ticked upward.<\/p>\n

Oakland\u2019s downtown vacancy rate is steeply up from 2019, shortly before the pandemic, when the rate was 10.8%, the East Bay Times noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cushman & Wakefield report observes that the Bay Area has experienced continued layoffs in the tech sector, and a failure by the booming AI industry to translate into greater demand for office space in Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the report, the Lake Merritt area saw some large leases signed in 2025, which could be a positive signal. But it also warned that several of the biggest tenants in downtown Oakland, including Kaiser, Clorox, and Pandora have leases that expire over the next 36 months.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few recent big deals in Oakland show some stirring demand. The largest deal in the first few months of 2026 was the expansion of the Emerson Collective, a company that invests in entrepreneurs, which took approximately 18,000 square feet on 9th Street. Hively, a social services advocacy organization, also signed a new 10,104 square foot lease on Hegenberger Road, and Alta Planning + Design leased nearly 9,000 square feet on Grand Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking ahead, these homegrown expansions will be crucial in halting the rise in vacancy, but it will take an in-migration of new, larger tenants for vacancy to decline meaningfully,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland has historically served as a \u201crelease valve\u201d for San Francisco demand, offering relatively affordable space compared to the West Bay. The report speculated that high-growth companies may turn to the East Bay for more office space.<\/p>\n

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