Tenants Continue to Enjoy Leverage in Metro Washington, DC Office Leasing Deals

WASHINGTON, DC--Jones Lang LaSalle presents its first group of market materials for 2nd Quarter 2008.

Included are the MarketSmart Statistics, Metro DC, Washington, DC, Suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia SubMarketSmarts, 2nd Quarter 2008 Market Highlights and Under Construction Pipeline and New Supply lists.

In several weeks, we will follow-up by sending the entire MarketSmart report, with detailed SubMarketSmart reports on all of the 35 submarkets that comrpise the Metropolitan Washington, DC market.

(For a copy of the current complete report, please contact John Sikaitis, (top right photo) Vice President, Communications, The Mid-Atlantic Research Group, 202.719.5839, John.Sikaitis@am.jll.com

The upcoming November election has the region and the country in a buzz about how each candidate would change the course of the current political mindset and fabric. However, despite the political buzz, there has been minimal effect on the office market. To date, the office market remained relatively stable from a demand standpoint, while new supply continued to be added to the market, shifting market fundamentals and leverage to the tenant in recent months

Looking ahead, opportunities for tenants to negotiate deals and evaluate options remained elevated from 12 to 18 months ago due to the combined slowdown in demand and increase in supply.

With a substantial amount of development yet to deliver and expected slowing in both the regional and national economies through the end of the year, leverage will remain firmly with tenants over the short term.

As the election is decided and companies begin to react and plan for growth in anticipation of the next Administration's priorities, we expect employment growth, federal spending growth and occupancy growth to be realized, slowly removing abundant space options from the market and gradually shifting leverage from tenants back to landlords.