Mixed views on Charlotte's office market

Plus: Uptown property values, too many apartments and warehouses?, Savona Mill signs first office tenant, LoSo apartments planned, UDO changes, reader poll on slow-moving developments

Today’s Real Estate Whispers is sponsored by LoSo Vending. LoSo Vending provides new vending machines to multi-family communities and businesses throughout Charlotte. Learn more about how we can provide this amenity at your location—at no cost to you! info@losovending.com

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It’s time once again to step into the latest irresistible edition of Charlotte Commercial Real Estate Whispers, where the city’s most sizzling land deals, rezonings and developments are artfully unwrapped. Get ready to be captivated by the most heart-pounding insights into Charlotte’s real estate landscape, where every transaction is a tantalizing secret and every revelation is a thrilling affair.

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In today’s edition:

1. Three new reports shed light on Charlotte’s office market

2. Data shows property values as a whole in uptown are continuing to rise, even as prices of commercial property seem to fall

3. Has Charlotte overbuilt apartments and warehouses? An economist suggests that’s a possibility if the economy turns south

4. Weigh in on some of Charlotte’s slowest-moving developments in our reader poll

5. A wrap-up of other local growth and development news, including Savona Mill’s first office tenant, LoSo apartments, proposed UDO changes and more!

Let’s get to it!

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New reports offer mixed view of Charlotte’s office landscape; ‘Subdued’ demand and new projects drying up, but solid fundamentals

The vacancy rate of office buildings in Charlotte is between 22% and 25%, new reports say, with most of the vacancies in older buildings. (Photo by Kevin Young/The 5 and 2 Project)

Three recent reports by leading real estate firms on the state of the Charlotte office market are painting a mixed picture, with continued high vacancy rates and a near-total halt of new construction balanced with notes of optimism.

The 1Q reports — from firms JLL, Cushman & Wakefield and Avison Young — place the Charlotte region’s office vacancy rate at between 22.4% and 25.2%, which is near all-time highs.

Some of the things going not so well: