Stemmons Freeway Submarket a Unicorn Amid Broader Office Sector Disruption
Diamond in the rough emerges. Masked by the overall office sector interruption, one submarket in Dallas-Fort Worth has quietly had an impressive showing. The Stemmons Freeway corridor, spanning Interstate 35 northwest of the Dallas core, has excelled. Vacancy here plummeted 510 basis points over the past 12 months ended in June. No other submarket recorded a vacancy decline greater than 150 basis points during that span. Stemmons Freeway benefits from its proximity to UT Southwestern Medical Center, which generates space demand from healthcare firms. Net absorption of more than 830,000 square feet over the past year helped boost the local average asking rent by 9.6 percent during that frame. Only four other submarkets had rent hikes of at least 3 percent and none of those exceeded 5 percent.