Orange County ranked seventh in the nation for office space to be converted or demolished into a residential development, according to a CBRE report published on June 9.
The ranking is part of a larger national trend showing more office space is planned to be removed from U.S. markets than added to it for the first time since at least 2018.
Orange County has 26 projects and 4.2 million square feet of office space that is either planned or already underway for conversion or demolition. Only one project – OCVibe – is underway this year and plans to add office space by the time it is online.
There are 19 multifamily conversions in Orange County that are in the planning stages, including the 111,483-square-foot office building at 2020 E. First St. in Santa Ana. Meritage Homes bought the building and plans to convert it into 86 townhome-style units.
CBRE looked at 58 markets nationwide and found 23.3 million square feet of office space is slated for conversion or demolition by the end of this year.
Manhattan ranked first on the CBRE list, with 10.3 million square feet, or 2.5% of its overall inventory, earmarked for conversion this year.
Completing the top 10 are Washington, D.C. (9.2 million square feet, 2.7%), Houston (6.7 million, 3.2%), Chicago (4.8 million, 1.9%), Dallas-Fort Worth (4.4 million, 2%), New Jersey (4.2 million, 2.8%), Orange County (4.2 million, 4%), Atlanta (3.6 million, 2.4%), Phoenix (3 million, 2.8%) and Cleveland (2.8 million, 8.4%).
