Flight-to-Quality in Northern Virginia

To better understand true vacancy and opportunity, CBRE  Mid-Atlantic Research identified and analyzed two segments of the office market:

• Trophy buildings are the highest quality buildings in Northern Virginia, consistently achieving rents in the top 10% of their submarket. They are predominantly new construction, and have the highest quality and quantity of building amenities.
• Class A+ achieve rents in the top 15% of buildings in their submarket, and include a successful suite of building amenities. Buildings in this set are typically earlier generation buildings that underwent extensive recent renovations. 

These segments outperform the rest of the market (Commodity Class A and Classes B and C) in demand and deal financials. While the concept of differentiation within the Class A set is not new, there is now enough clarity on the demand side to create these distinct categories. Combined, these asset classes account for 12% of the total office inventory (19.1 million sq. ft.).