Office Space Shortage Anticipated

Downtown Phoenix will need to build about 320,000 square feet of office space every year for the next 10 years to keep up with anticipated demand. The information was given to the Downtown Phoenix Partnership Inc.'s board of directors from Elliott Pollack. The findings were the first phase of an office market competitive analysis that will help guide future development strategies for downtown. Central to the redevelopment of Downtown Phoenix is a planned 15,000 student campus for ASU, perhaps 10,000 new housing units, roughly 700,000 square feet of new retail, restaurants and entertainment space, an expanded Phoenix Civic Plaza, light rail, open space and more. Rick Merritt, senior vice president at Pollack, says that the downtown's 9.7 percent share of the metro office market is down from roughly 12 percent in past years. He also states that the demand for additional office space valley wide is being fueled by the roughly 67,200 jobs that are going to be added annually.