Triangle sees uptick in office leasing even as vacancy rates stay high. Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- WeWork cut Durham office space by half, exiting one floor at One City Center.
- Triangle office leasing rose as CBRE reported deals from Infosys and Kimley-Horn.
- Vacancy dipped from 21.3% to 21.2% in Q2 2025, hinting at market bottoming.
Roughly two years after WeWork filed for bankruptcy, it’s shrunk its footprint by over half in downtown Durham.
In late May, the New York-based coworking operator emptied out of One City Center’s fourth floor, consolidating to only the fifth floor and reducing its operating space to 32,098 square feet, said the building’s leasing agent Michael Divaris, president of Divaris Real Estate.
In March 2024, WeWork filed a motion in U.S. bankruptcy court to keep its Durham office, but under a reduced size and rental rate.
The company continues to operate 73,000 square feet across three floors in Raleigh’s One Glenwood near Warehouse District.
The vacated space at 111 Corcoran St. in Durham, about 30,000 square feet, is now being marketed for lease or subdivision into five suites, Divaris said.
While vacancies remain high across the Triangle due to remote work trends and weak tenant demand triggered by the pandemic, One City Center is otherwise fully occupied. Divaris remains positive. “We’re showing to possible tenants. We’re hopeful that it won’t take us too long to refill the space,” he said.
Triangle Business Journal first reported the lease opening.
‘Leasing and absorption uptick’
In recent years, the rise of hybrid work, high interest rates, and now tariffs, have pummeled the office market.
But even as major tenants like WeWork and IQVIA scale back, leasing is slowly starting to pick up, say CBRE analysts.
In Raleigh-Durham, overall vacancy peaked at 21.3% in the first quarter, breaking records set in 1986 and 1991. But it has since declined to 21.2%, according to CBRE’s 2025 second-quarter market report.
Many hope it’s a sign that the market has “bottomed out.”
By CBRE’s estimates, over 25 tenants are currently seeking footprints larger than 20,000 square feet, including several active requirements ranging from 75,000 to 400,000 square feet.”
Not seen since pre-COVID-19, new-to-market activity has also returned, with larger tenants seeking headquarters, CBRE said.
Among them: Infosys took 61,562 square feet at Legacy at Brier Creek in Glenwood/Creedmoor, Kimley-Horn & Associates inked 36,333 square feet at Weston I in Cary, and Hill-Rom Company leased 22,418 square feet at Palisades III in West Raleigh.
CBRE also completed 14 new office leases totaling 73,541 square feet at The Grove in West Raleigh, bringing the property to 90% leased.
In Durham, the redeveloped N.C. Mutual Tower added a string of new tenants that included DPAC leasing 2,227 square feet; Logisticon, Inc. leasing 1,532 square feet; and Cape Residential leasing 1,630 square feet.
The construction pipeline remains empty following the delivery of Tower 5 at the North Hills Innovation District in Midtown Raleigh in late 2024.
With no new supply expected in the near term, “we remain cautiously optimistic,” CBRE’s executive vice president Brad Corsmeier said in a recent Linkedin post. “The fundamentals are improving.”
