In the last decade, Baltimore has grown similarly to other cities in the nation. In the last 10 years, the Baltimore office market added almost 10.3 million square feet to its suburbs—nearly five times the amount added to its urban areas.

Likewise, Phoenix and Austin markets experienced comparable growth, both adding much more suburban office space than urban. This type of growth signals a shift in preference for both companies and employees alike—away from traditional creative tech hubs like Silicon Valley and San Francisco and toward cities with a lower cost of living and high-quality amenities.

Meanwhile, the price per square foot that properties traded for fluctuated quite a bit last decade;it was $130 in 2010 before peaking at $221 in 2018. The year with the lowest average price per square foot was 2017 at $106. This is consistent with the national trend, which also saw a decline in price per square foot nationally from 2016 to 2017. Assets ended the decade trading at $151 per square foot.

The largest transaction in the last 10 years was for 6100 Wabash Avenue. The 538,000-square-foot property was purchased by JBG SMITH from CoreCivic for $242 million in 2018. The sale represented a price per square foot of almost $450—more than double the average for the Baltimore market that year.

The largest building completed in the last decade was the 648,000-square-foot Exelon Building in 2016. Owned by Beatty Development Group, the building features 444,000 square feet of usable office space, as well as apartments and retail on the ground floor.

Nationally, 2019 was the only year in the last decade that urban development outpaced suburban development. However, Baltimore maintained its suburban development trend by adding more than half a million square feet of office space in suburbs and none in urban areas. Moving forward, low interest rates and increasing demand should enable Baltimore to continue to prosper in the next decade.