{"id":33170,"date":"2022-02-01T15:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/?p=33170"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:29:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:29:27","slug":"cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]\n<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>1.8 billion square feet of rentable office space has been constructed across the country in the last 20 years, with 85% in the top 50 metropolitan areas.<\/li>\n<li>Office construction was overwhelmingly suburban, as campus-style design and cheaper land pulled developers and companies further out of the city.<\/li>\n<li>New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle and Buffalo, N.Y., bucked the suburban trend, adding more offices to urban areas.<\/li>\n<li>Suburban office development dominated Western and Southwestern markets, with more than 330 million square feet constructed.<\/li>\n<li>Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C. saw more office development in their CBDs as compared to the country overall.<\/li>\n<li>64% of offices constructed in LA were in urban or CBD locations, whereas just 9% of San Diego\u2019s were in the city.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The evolution of how and where we work changes slowly. But sometime during the last half-century, we stopped building as many skyscraper office buildings and started building more campus-style offices in the suburbs or on the urban fringe \u2014 or at least that\u2019s how it feels. Plus, in many cases, it\u2019s cheaper to build a new property in the suburbs than it is to update and retrofit an older urban building. As a result of this transition, parking became easier, office amenities expanded and commuting time increased.<\/p>\n<p>But is this really what happened? Have the suburbs been more popular for office development than cities? And, if so, has this same trend played out across the entire country?<\/p>\n<p>To find out, we identified properties in 50 top markets across all urban, suburban, and central business district (CBD) locations. Then, using data provided by Yardi Research Data, we analyzed the office footprint within each area from 2002 through 2021 to see where the expansion and growth was concentrated in the last two decades. For consistency, \u201curban\u201d does not include the central business district. These metrics were calculated separately.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth mentioning that one thing to keep in mind when analyzing growth data is size. Suburban geographies are larger than their urban centers and, consequently, can handle far more growth. But the suburbs also tend to have more square footage already. So, while 5 million square feet added to an urban location may represent a high growth rate for that area, the same addition in a large, suburban location might actually be quite low relative to the existing office space, depending on the market.<\/p>\n<h2>Mountains, Boundaries &amp; Prestige: The Northwest &amp; Northeast Grow Urban Cores<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33185 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Urban Suburban Office Construction\" width=\"1024\" height=\"592\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg 3750w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?resize=150,87 150w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?resize=519,300 519w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?resize=768,444 768w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?resize=1868,1080 1868w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?resize=1536,888 1536w, https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/SuburbanDevelopmentMap.jpg?resize=2048,1184 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>Fully two-thirds of all office space added in the last 20 years in the U.S. was in the suburbs \u2014 totaling more than 1.2 billion square feet across nearly 18,000 properties. Accordingly, with the availability of cheaper land that\u2019s more easily developed, it stands to reason that the majority of office growth would be in the suburbs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"7b83cefd-54c7-4bf6-9b90-39814b383a15\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"2 Decades Office Invetory evolution - Pacific Northwest &amp;amp; Northeast\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Going deeper, though, the suburbs weren\u2019t always more popular areas for office development. For instance, the Pacific Northwest and Northeastern regions of the U.S. saw more office development in their urban and CBD areas, with suburban development accounting for only 42% and 47% of office development, respectively. Specifically, since 2002, these regions have added 206 million square feet of urban and CBD office space across 1,020 properties.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, the more urban-concentrated development in the Pacific Northwest has two main causes: geography and growth boundary policies. The Northwestern U.S. is mountainous and, as a result, more difficult to build on, especially around the largest urban center \u2014 Seattle. What\u2019s more, in 1979, Portland instituted its urban growth boundary policy that restricts development outside of the city, thereby forcing Portland to grow up, rather than out, to combat urban sprawl.<\/p>\n<p>On the opposite coast, the Northeastern region added more square footage of office space than any other region across all location types \u2014 2,362 properties totaling more than 300 million square feet. Of course, this region is home to global cities like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ny\/new-york-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York City<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ma\/boston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Boston<\/a>, which explains why 53% of the office space developed here in the last 20 years was in urban and CBD areas. New York City, in particular, has very little developable land, comparatively speaking. Therefore, up is really the only way to go for building new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ny\/new-york-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in New York City<\/a>. However, Buffalo, N.Y., also ranked alongside the largest cities in the country with 60% of the nearly 8 million square feet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ny\/buffalo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buffalo<\/a> office space being built in urban and CBD locations.<\/p>\n<h2>Suburban Office Development Dominates in West &amp; Southwest<\/h2>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"4073321e-a4c0-4412-92a0-f66ac1620e90\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"2 Decades Office Invetory evolution - West &amp;amp; Southwest\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Conversely, suburbs in the Southwestern region accounted for 80% of the office expansion in the last two decades. In fact, this region also added the second-most office space overall, developing more than 240 million square feet of office space across 2,463 properties since 2002. Granted, Texas makes up the majority of this region, which includes not only the sprawling markets of Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (DFW), but also the fast-growing Austin market, as well. Clearly, the expanse of east Texas surrounding these urban centers provides cheaper construction options for developers than the more expensive urban areas.<\/p>\n<p>But not every Texas city grew the same way. While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/houston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Houston<\/a>, DFW, and Austin saw similar suburban office development throughout the last two decades (81%, 77% and 77%, respectively), it was actually San Antonio\u2019s suburban office market that grew the most as a percentage of existing stock compared to the other three Texas cities: In the Alamo City, 86% of all office square footage added since 2002 was in the suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>And, despite the Texas capital\u2019s mid-range performance among its peers in the suburban category, its CBD significantly outperformed DFW and Houston. Specifically, 16% of new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/austin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">office space in Austin<\/a> was downtown, totaling more than 6 million square feet across 37 properties. By comparison, Houston and DFW added a combined 10.1 million square feet of office space in their downtowns. And as the way work changes, all three of these cities are on the cutting edge with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/tx\/dallas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coworking spaces in Dallas<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/tx\/houston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Houston<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/tx\/austin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Austin<\/a> all in the top 12 markets nationally.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Western region \u2014 encompassing Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Idaho \u2014 added the most office square footage as a percentage of total 2022 stock. More precisely, 34% of this region\u2019s current office space was built in the last 20 years \u2014 accounting for more than 1,989 properties and 172 million square feet of office space. Here again, large, suburban markets were the reason for this region\u2019s growth, with 81% of all office properties built since 2002 being in the suburbs of cities like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/az\/phoenix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phoenix<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/co\/denver\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Denver<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/nv\/las-vegas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Las Vegas<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ut\/salt-lake-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salt Lake City<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the suburbs made the campus-style headquarters possible, too: Silicon Valley tech giants became famous for their HQs, attracting top talent with high-quality and unique amenities, like complimentary snacks, nap pods, and free transportation to and from work. And, although office campuses like these weren\u2019t anything new, they were previously treated like any other business park with the buildings leasing out individual spaces. But while it\u2019s possible to achieve this atmosphere in the city center, the campus-style office design is best suited for the suburbs, where land is plentiful and cheap.<\/p>\n<h2>Florida Focuses on Suburbs, D.C. &amp; Charlotte Grow CBDs<\/h2>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"9852e341-f622-4c7f-b8ef-a6fb0d74e345\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"2 Decades Office Invetory evolution - Florida Markets\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Office development on the East Coast was anything but homogeneous: Indeed, every city added more office space in suburban areas than in urban or CBD areas combined, but some cities saw more urban office development than others. In particular, office space added in Florida since 2002 was overwhelmingly suburban, with 81% of office construction happening in the suburbs \u2014 totaling more than 81 million square feet across 1,153 properties. In fact, across the five Florida cities we analyzed \u2014 Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville \u2014 only 25 properties were constructed in CBDs, equating to less than 3% of all properties added in this timeframe.<\/p>\n<p>Farther north, both Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C. added considerably more space to their urban areas and CBDs than most other cities in our analysis. Indeed, both cities also offer significant shared office space, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/dc\/washington\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coworking space in Washington, D.C<\/a>. and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/nc\/charlotte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charlotte coworking<\/a> both within the top 20 markets.<\/p>\n<p>The national capital market is vast, covering roughly half of Maryland and all of northern Virginia, which means that most of the area within the market is suburban. Even so, 47% of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/dc\/washington\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington, D.C. office space<\/a> added in the last 20 years was in urban and CBD areas such as Arlington, Va.; Alexandria, Va.; and D.C. proper. Specifically, 21% of the space was in the CBD, the center of D.C. itself. Moreover, of the nearly 105 million square feet of office space added to the market overall in the last two decades, nearly 22 million was added to the CBD \u2014 which is quite a feat given that the construction height restriction in the District is roughly 11 stories.<\/p>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"d3956a41-0b7b-447f-8fa9-3c6fa6033f05\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"2 Decades Office Invetory evolution - DC, Charlotte, Baltimore\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Charlotte\u2019s CBD also saw more growth than most others in the country in since 2002, adding nearly 7 million square feet of office space across 14 properties \u2014 21% of the total space added in the market overall. Overall, the MSA added 33.4 million square feet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/nc\/charlotte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charlotte office space<\/a> across 290 properties.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, office construction in Atlanta and Baltimore leaned heavily on areas outside of the CBD, with just 2% and 3% of office properties constructed being located there, respectively. However, Atlanta\u2019s urban locations outside of its CBD grew significantly. In fact, 35% of all office space added in the ATL in the last 20 years was concentrated in the urban areas of Midtown and Buckhead \u2014 with 62 properties totaling 16.6 million square feet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ga\/atlanta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Atlanta office space<\/a>. Coincidentally, much of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ga\/atlanta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coworking space in Atlanta<\/a> is also located in these areas. Not far behind, 23% of office space added to the Baltimore office market during the last two decades was in urban areas outside of its CBD, totaling 8.3 million square feet.<\/p>\n<h2>LA &amp; San Francisco Focus on Urban Offices; San Diego &amp; Bay Area Opposite<\/h2>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"a768914b-4e8d-407c-a979-fd35c639fbf7\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"2 Decades Office Invetory evolution - Los Angeles &amp;amp; San Francisco\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>In general, California markets largely avoided the CBD as far office development goes, with the exception of high-profile properties like the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles. Here, just 7% of all of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/los-angeles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles office space<\/a> that was added since 2002 \u2014 2.9 million square feet across 31 properties \u2014 was located in the city\u2019s CBD. And while this might seem like a significant amount, the LA urban areas outside of the CBD \u2014 mostly between downtown and Santa Monica, as well as south to Long Beach \u2014 added 211 properties totaling more than 23 million square feet. Furthermore, the suburban areas to the east and north added less than 15 million square feet of office space, just 36% of the total space added in the last 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>Coworking has also exploded in popularity in the City of Angels. In fact, the number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ca\/los-angeles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coworking spaces in Los Angeles<\/a> is second only to New York City. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ca\/san-francisco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coworking in San Francisco<\/a> is nearly as popular in Los Angeles as the sixth most popular coworking market in the country.<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco followed a similar pattern to LA, with office construction mostly taking place outside of the CBD. As a matter of fact, just one property was constructed in the CBD in the last 20 years: 350 Bush, with 388,000 square feet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/san-francisco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco office space<\/a>. Meanwhile, 44% of office space constructed was concentrated primarily in the SOMA and South Financial districts, with the famous Salesforce Tower being completed in 2018 and totaling 1.4 million square feet.<\/p>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, the very suburban markets of the Bay Area and San Diego added office space exactly there \u2014 in the suburbs. San Diego\u2019s suburbs saw a whopping 91% of total office construction in the MSA \u2014 nearly 27 million square feet across 268 properties. Despite the fact that the dispersion of properties covered many of the outer regions of the San Diego market, the lion\u2019s share of the properties were claimed by Carlsbad, Torrey Pines and the Sorrento Valley. That\u2019s because San Diego\u2019s biotechnology sector is largely concentrated in those submarkets \u2014 and they show no signs of slowing down. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ca\/san-diego\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Diego coworking<\/a> has also been expanding recently.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the Bay Area is the definition of suburban, with the only urban areas being located right around San Jose and Oakland. Consequently, 375 properties consisting of 55.6 million square feet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/bay-area-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bay Area office space<\/a> constructed in the last 20 years were in suburban areas. By comparison, just 52 properties were added to Bay Area urban locations during the same timeframe. Here, startup culture, boutique offices and tech campuses dominate the office market of the Bay Area \u2014 a fact that\u2019s not expected to change anytime soon with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ca\/santa-clara-county\/palo-alto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coworking spaces in Palo Alto<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/ca\/santa-clara-county\/san-jose\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Jose<\/a> expanding.<\/p>\n<h2>Chicago Adds More Urban Offices Than Suburban, Other Midwest Cities Trend Similarly<\/h2>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"bd38ae5b-3974-46fe-95a4-ebcbb4c48627\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"Decades Office Invetory evolution - Chicago, Nashville, Twin Cities, Birmingham, Milwaukee, and Omaha\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the Midwest and Southern regions, only one market added more urban office space than suburban space \u2014 Chicago. In particular, 56% of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/il\/chicago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago office space<\/a> constructed since 2002 was in urban and CBD areas (119 properties totaling 33.7 million square feet) and more than half of that was in the CBD itself. Likewise, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/tn\/nashville\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nashville<\/a>, Tenn.; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/mn\/minneapolis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Minneapolis-St. Paul<\/a>, Minn.; Birmingham, Ala.; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/wi\/milwaukee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Milwaukee<\/a>, Wis., followed similar lines with at least one-third of office space constructed in these markets being in urban and CBD areas. Notably, one-fifth of properties added to the Omaha office market were in its CBD. In total, 10 properties added nearly 3.2 million square feet to Nebraska\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"bc9c2ac2-020f-4f81-88b6-9b02c0a7e2aa\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"Decades Office Inventory evolution - St. Louis and Cleveland\"><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t=\"InfogramEmbeds\",d=e.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(\"script\");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,\"infogram-async\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/oh\/cleveland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cleveland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/coworking-space\/us\/mo\/saint-louis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">St. Louis<\/a> saw far more suburban growth than urban. In fact, each city only constructed a single property in their respective CBDs \u2014 The PwC Pennant Building in St. Louis and the Cuyahoga County Administrative Building in Cleveland. Accordingly, 88% of office space constructed in St. Louis was in suburban areas, while that figure was 82% for Cleveland.<\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-HGRV5\" style=\"min-height: 440px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/HGRV5\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-HGRV5\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/HGRV5\/full.png\" alt=\"Office Inventory Added in 50 Markets - 2002-2021 (Symbol map)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Clearly, suburban office development outpaced that of urban office development in the vast majority of markets across the country. Then, part of the campus-style suburban office created micro communities \u2014 which attracted other ancillary businesses to serve the workers, which attracted more businesses and development. Nevertheless, it\u2019s hard to predict what the office environment will look like in the next 20 years, and the pandemic has only accelerated hybrid work schedules and remote working trends. Even so, there\u2019s a chance that the landscape could look very different. Then again, real estate doesn\u2019t change that rapidly and startups are seemingly everywhere \u2014 and more space is likely on the horizon.<\/p>\n<h2>Methodology<\/h2>\n<p>For this report, we compared all office properties completed since January 1, 2002, to the total completed office inventory on December 31, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Market inventories are highlighted\u202fbased on the number of properties shown as \u201cCompleted\u201d and the total amount of \u201cOffice Rentable Square Feet\u201d incorporated in those properties.<\/p>\n<p>Each market inventory is divided into location ratings (CBD-Primary, CBD-Secondary, Urban-Primary, Urban-Secondary, Suburban-Primary, and Suburban-Secondary). For the purposes of this article, primary and secondary locations were combined to focus only on CBD, urban, and suburban locations overall.<\/p>\n<p>Square footage parameters: at least 25,000 square feet.<\/p>\n<p>Regional differences feature the office inventory of 120 commercial markets.<\/p>\n<p>Data extraction date: January 2022.<\/p>\n<p><em>Want to see what other top office markets have to offer? Select any location from those linked below to check out the local listings!<\/em><\/p>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-42\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-42\">\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/dallas\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Dallas<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/nv\/las-vegas\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Las Vegas<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/fl\/fort-lauderdale\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Fort Lauderdale<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/fort-worth\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Fort Worth<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/co\/denver\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Denver<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/fl\/west-palm-beach\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in West Palm Beach<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/fl\/miami\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Miami<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/pa\/philadelphia\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Philadelphia<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/santa-clara-county\/san-jose\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in San Jose<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/az\/phoenix\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Phoenix<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/san-diego\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in San Diego<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/tx\/bexar-county\/san-antonio\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in San Antonio<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/oh\/cincinnati\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Cincinnati<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/ca\/sacramento\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Sacramento<\/a><\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/office\/us\/in\/indianapolis\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office space in Indianapolis<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-42 from cache -->[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;] Key Takeaways 1.8 billion square feet of rentable office space has been constructed across the country in the last 20 years, with 85% in the top 50 metropolitan areas. Office construction was overwhelmingly suburban, as campus-style design and cheaper land pulled developers and companies further out of the city. New York City, Los&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":33210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,4014,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial-real-estate-news","category-featured","category-office","wpautop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years - CommercialCafe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CommercialCafe analyzes how office construction shifted between CBDs, urban cores, and suburbs across US markets in 2022.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CommercialCafe analyzes how office construction shifted between CBDs, urban cores, and suburbs across US markets in 2022.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CommercialCafe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-01T12:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-07T11:29:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick McGregor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick McGregor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/\",\"name\":\"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years - CommercialCafe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-01T12:00:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-07T11:29:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c4b8bd92d517f49f64d90afedab8ec29\"},\"description\":\"CommercialCafe analyzes how office construction shifted between CBDs, urban cores, and suburbs across US markets in 2022.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"Urban suburban office space\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"CommercialCafe\",\"description\":\"Your Commercial Real Estate Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c4b8bd92d517f49f64d90afedab8ec29\",\"name\":\"Patrick McGregor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5b90aa64c1da6b7d4a441251c5a4e3fe2d972d8c339810e2eea50def586669b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5b90aa64c1da6b7d4a441251c5a4e3fe2d972d8c339810e2eea50def586669b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Patrick McGregor\"},\"description\":\"Patrick McGregor is a senior writer covering the real estate industry and overall economic trends in the United States for several Yardi product publications. He also holds an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Patrick was previously a commercial real estate analyst at Yardi Matrix for five years. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Bisnow, GlobeSt, The Real Deal, Business Insider, The Denver Post, The Motley Fool, and more.\",\"sameAs\":[\"patrick.mcgregor@yardi.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/author\/patrickmcgregor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years - CommercialCafe","description":"CommercialCafe analyzes how office construction shifted between CBDs, urban cores, and suburbs across US markets in 2022.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years","og_description":"CommercialCafe analyzes how office construction shifted between CBDs, urban cores, and suburbs across US markets in 2022.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/","og_site_name":"CommercialCafe","article_published_time":"2022-02-01T12:00:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-07T11:29:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Patrick McGregor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patrick McGregor","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/","name":"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years - CommercialCafe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg","datePublished":"2022-02-01T12:00:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-07T11:29:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c4b8bd92d517f49f64d90afedab8ec29"},"description":"CommercialCafe analyzes how office construction shifted between CBDs, urban cores, and suburbs across US markets in 2022.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg","width":1280,"height":500,"caption":"Urban suburban office space"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/cbd-urban-suburban-office-development-2022\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Suburbs Home to 67% of All Offices Constructed in Last 20 Years"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/","name":"CommercialCafe","description":"Your Commercial Real Estate Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c4b8bd92d517f49f64d90afedab8ec29","name":"Patrick McGregor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5b90aa64c1da6b7d4a441251c5a4e3fe2d972d8c339810e2eea50def586669b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5b90aa64c1da6b7d4a441251c5a4e3fe2d972d8c339810e2eea50def586669b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Patrick McGregor"},"description":"Patrick McGregor is a senior writer covering the real estate industry and overall economic trends in the United States for several Yardi product publications. He also holds an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Patrick was previously a commercial real estate analyst at Yardi Matrix for five years. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Bisnow, GlobeSt, The Real Deal, Business Insider, The Denver Post, The Motley Fool, and more.","sameAs":["patrick.mcgregor@yardi.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/author\/patrickmcgregor\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/01\/CBD_Urban_Suburban2022.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33170"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48755,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33170\/revisions\/48755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialcafe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}