Office Pipeline 2026: Strategic Agility Amid Construction Reset

Agility has become the defining strategy in the current office landscape. That’s because developers who can pivot quickly are better-positioned to mitigate losses and adapt to shifting demand. This trend is evident not only in the ongoing contraction of construction volumes across major U.S. markets, but also in the strategic pausing of high-profile projects. A notable example is IQHQ’s life sciences development in Boston, where vertical construction on the nearly 960,000-square-foot lab project has been halted until the developer secures a 50% pre-leasing commitment.

Despite these pauses, new construction starts have recently increased: According to Yardi Research data, nearly half of the 28.9 million square feet currently under construction consists of projects that broke ground in 2025. While this volume remains below the record highs seen immediately following the pandemic, the significant increase in the last 12 months provides an encouraging signal to developers regarding the potential for future project growth.

Click on the highlights in the executive summary below to learn more development insights and details on the largest office projects scheduled for completion this year.

Executive summary

• Boston office pipeline drops to less than one-quarter of post-COVID-19 highs
• West Palm Beach, Fla, office boom concentrated around $10 billion downtown megaproject
• Amazon tower in Bellevue, Wash., heads ranking of major U.S. office deliveries in 2026
• 660,000-square-foot Alexandria Center Fenway leads national life sciences pipeline
• Houston development tops list of largest medical offices under construction

Boston Pipeline Drops to Less Than 25% of Post-COVID-19 Highs

At the start of 2026, an estimated 28.9 million square feet of office space was under construction across the U.S. The overarching trend is similar to last year with developers slowing production to drive down vacancy rates and allow demand to catch up.

For instance, Boston — a perennial leader in the national office pipeline in the last few years due to its role as the epicenter of the life sciences boom — has further cut its projected output. At 4.1 million square feet, it’s now less than one-quarter of its peak in 2024.

Despite a slight dip in its total square footage in the pipeline, Manhattan, N.Y.’s 2.7 million was sufficient to catapult it back into second place after it fell outside of the top five markets for construction last year. Not far behind, Dallas came closest to challenging for that runner-up spot with its 2.4 million square feet of office space currently under construction.

Then, Los Angeles ranks fourth in terms of office construction volume (2 million square feet), followed by a surprising newcomer to the list: West Palm Beach, Fla., has overtaken Miami as the most active market in the state with a total of 1.6 million square feet of office space in its pipeline (roughly double Miami’s).

Meanwhile, office development shrank by 163% year-over-year in Austin, Texas, meaning it not only lost its runner-up spot behind Boston, but also handed over the title of the highest-ranking Texas market for office construction to Dallas for the first time.

West Palm Beach, Fla., Office Boom Concentrated Around $10 Billion Downtown Megaproject

West Palm Beach, Fla., is leading this year’s ranking of percentage of stock under construction. The 1.6 million square feet of office space currently in the works here represents 4% of its existing inventory.

An area with a limited number of trophy assets that is now trying to meet growing demand, this is the first time that West Palm Beach has appeared on the list in recent years. Here, a lot of investor appetite is driven by Related Ross’ $10 billion megaproject to reshape downtown West Palm Beach into a financial and residential hub. The most prominent developments in the pipeline are the two trophy towers (10 & 15 CityPlace), which will add up to roughly 950,000 square feet of prime West Palm Beach office space. That said, both are projected to come online in the next two years, rather than in 2026.

Next, the 4.1 million square feet of office space in Boston’s pipeline represents less than 2% of the city’s current stock, which has been boosted substantially since 2020. Although the volume of construction of life sciences and R&D workspaces has progressively declined throughout the last couple of years, these types of projects still dominate Boston’s landscape. Of the five Boston properties that made the nationwide top 20 largest office buildings under construction, four are classified as life sciences projects.

Not to be outdone, the pipeline in Austin, Texas, accounts for 1.4% of its office inventory with two projects looming especially large: One is the Waterline — a mixed-use office and residential building developed by Lincoln Property Company that’s purported to be the state’s tallest building upon completion — and Apple’s Austin campus expansion.

Amazon Tower in Bellevue, Wash., Heads Ranking of Major U.S. Office Deliveries in 2026

The top 20 largest office properties under construction in 2026 included only one project above 1 million square feet — the Amazon-owned Tower 1 at Bellevue 600 — with many of the assets in the pipeline designed to be occupied by their respective owners.

In fact, nearly half of all top deliveries are set to house operations of tech firms such as Google, Amazon, and Apple, as well as real estate and medical manufacturing companies. While life sciences and R&D workspaces continue to play an important role in high-end office output, mixed-use office projects that incorporate retail and multi-family spaces take the spotlight.

Among these, the 1.1-million-square-foot Tower 1 at Bellevue 600 in Bellevue, Wash., is making steady progress toward its estimated completion date in Q1 2026, despite significant Amazon employee layoffs last autumn and a temporary halt in construction at several of the company’s developments across the city. The massive, 43-story office tower — which also features 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space — will house Amazon’s 15,000-strong labor force in Bellevue following the firm’s decision to fully scrap its hybrid work model.

In second place, a trophy office space in Omaha, Neb., designed to serve as the headquarters of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company will add 800,000 square feet of office space to the city. Upon completion in the final quarter of 2026, it will be the tallest building in both Omaha and the state of Nebraska, as well as the tallest in the surrounding states of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming. The property will feature a street-level lobby, five-floor sky lobby, landscaped outdoor terraces, fitness center, and flexible conference and meeting spaces.

 

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Moving back east, architecture firm Pickard Chilton was contracted to handle CoStar Group’s Richmond, Va., headquarters revamp. The 26-story tower will encompass 750,000 square feet and is scheduled to come online by the end of March. It will accommodate an expanded workforce of up to 4,000 employees.

Then, the next three spots are also occupied by mixed-use office spaces, such as JMB Realty’s Century City Center in Los Angeles; Lincoln Property’s Waterline in Austin, Texas; and Pembroke Real Estate’s Commonwealth Pier in Boston.

As you might expect, the highest-ranking life sciences project is also located in Boston with Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ 660,000-square-foot Fenway development at 421 Park Drive. Along with two other properties — the renovated 401 Park Drive and the newly built 201 Brookline Ave. — it forms the Fenway mega campus, which is strategically positioned near both Cambridge and the Longwood Medical Area. Plus, 421 Park Drive will also provide direct connections to the MBTA Fenway station, as well as bicycle and pedestrian paths.

Outside of the Boston market, other major life sciences projects include the 574,000-square-foot HELIX H-1 in northern New Jersey; the Spark Therapeutics Gene Therapy Innovation Center, a 500,000-square-foot office space in Philadelphia; and, on the West Coast, 4135 Campus Point Court — another asset developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities totaling 427,000 square feet of office space in San Diego.

Notably, the only major creative office project across the top 20 deliveries in 2026 is Echelon Studios in Los Angeles. Developed by BARDAS Investment Group, this 510,300-square-foot property will feature four soundstages and one 15,000-square-foot flex stage. It will also include an extensive base camp and mill, as well as two creative office towers bridged by an elevated campus and a bungalow village of executive and creative suites. The project is scheduled for completion in Q4.

 

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660,000-Square-Foot Alexandria Center Fenway Leads National Life Sciences Pipeline

Among the largest specialized office projects currently under construction, we see that, despite the recent slowdown, most of the largest life sciences projects are still clustered around the greater Boston area. Otherwise, properties from other markets — such as San Diego; Tampa, Fla.; and Philadelphia — are typically below the 500,000-square-foot mark.

Generally, Northeastern locations are preferred for developers of large life sciences projects because they allow developments such as the HELIX H-1 in the New Jersey market or The Morgan Center for Research and Innovation in Philadelphia to benefit from the concentration of similar research facilities and companies in these areas.

Leading the list of the largest life sciences workspaces in the pipeline in 2026 is the Alexandria Center for Life Science-Fenway. The previously mentioned 660,000-square-foot building is part of a state-of-the-art research campus in Boston and already home to big industry players, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Pfizer. Before construction began at the 14-story property, Boston Children’s Hospital paid roughly $155 million in June 2023 for 268,000 square feet of space within the building, which is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter.

Across the country, Alexandria Real Estate Equities also has another top life sciences project in the works in San Diego, where a 426,927-square-foot building at 4135 Campus Point Court is scheduled for completion in Q3.

Nearby, another San Diego life sciences development — Building 100 of the 378,000-square-foot Campus at Horton Plaza — is currently in foreclosure. Initially expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2026, its future is now in doubt as lender AllianceBernstein has been unable to attract outside bidders to take on the project. Previously part of the Horton Plaza Mall, former owner Stockdale Capital Partners had acquired the property with plans to revive it as a mixed-use office campus before shifting to a life sciences project.

On the opposite coast, Florida’s first cancer institute, Moffitt, is readying itself for the opening of its Speros FL – Discovery & Innovation Center in Land O’Lakes, Fla. The 250,000-square-foot project will house wet labs, conference rooms, and collaborative workspaces to enable vital research in bioengineering, molecular oncology, tumor microenvironments, and cell and gene therapy.

 

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University of Texas Development in Houston #1 Among Medical Office Projects

Whereas the Northeast attracts most of the major life sciences developments, investment in medical offices is concentrated in the South. The largest of these is the MD Anderson Consolidated Service Center, a 251,444-square-foot project that’s expected to be completed in Q2.

The property, which is owned by the University of Texas, will be fully occupied by the institution’s world-renowned cancer research center. It’s part of a larger construction effort in the area as work is also underway on the much larger MD Anderson South Campus Research Building 5 — a 600,000-square-foot life sciences project worth roughly $668 million. Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects in partnership with Kirksey, the project is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2027.

In late 2024, Harris Health System contracted Swedish developer Skanska to build its 145,275-square-foot Central Fill Pharmacy. Located at 2525 Holly Hall St., the four-story medical office lies southeast of the Texas Medical Center, near Harris Health’s Smith Clinic. Interestingly, Skanska employed a tiltwall construction method for this project with concrete panels cast on-site and then lifted or tilted into place. The method is typically used for large, single-story buildings, but the construction company opted for it because it enabled more efficient operations on this development.

Further east, Mount Sinai poured $250 million into its Norman Braman Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami Beach, Fla. The 216,000-square-foot facility was designed with climate resiliency in mind as the building’s floor can be raised up to six feet above sea-wall elevation and the interiors feature passive self-shading through concrete spandrel panels. Completion is set for the first quarter of 2026.

 

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Finally, the Hackensack Meridian Health and Wellness Center at Metropark Station in Iselin, N.J., is a 245,000-square-foot project that’s set to include medical offices; commercial spaces (roughly 10,000 square feet of retail space); training and conference areas; and on-site parking. Located near Metropark train station, the property will be accessible to those who don’t own a car as the area is served by regular NJ Transit rail and bus rides. Dinallo Development, Onyx Equities and Russo Development handle the $200 million project. Upon its completion in this year’s first quarter, Hackensack Meridian Health will use the new office space as its headquarters, bringing staff from three different corporate spaces under one roof. Subsequently, the site will undergo a second construction phase, adding 235 apartments and retail space.

 

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Methodology

Information for this article was compiled from Yardi Research Data. Deliveries data for the top 20 ranking, along with national construction data, were based on numbers extracted as of February 2, 2026.

We only included properties equal to or larger than 25,000 square feet and that were designated either exclusively or primarily for office use (such as mixed-use, including office space).

Data presented under the top office developments of 2026 includes under-construction projects with estimated completion dates during this calendar year. Final delivery dates may differ. The square footage shown for each entry represents total property size.

Owner-occupied projects were excluded from market totals, but not from the top 20 deliveries list.

Disclaimer

While every effort was made to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of the information presented herein, the information is provided “as is” and neither CommercialCafe nor Yardi Research Data can guarantee that the information provided is complete. This report 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.