Rosslyn’s Wilson Boulevard is most expensive street to lease space in Northern Virginia

Just how much will companies pay to occupy one of America’s most desired office addresses? According to JLL’s 2017 Most Expensive Streets study, those high-profile strips command an average asking rent of $48.65 per square foot, or a 46.9 percent premium compared to the rest of the country.

Across the metropolitan Washington, D.C. region, similar premiums exist despite market stagnancy. In fact, the one-mile stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue that runs from the White House to the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., commands the highest office rents in the mid-Atlantic region with an average of $80 per square foot.

Occupied primarily by top-tier law firms, lobbying groups and government affairs’ offices of Fortune 500 companies, JLL says these tenants are willing to pay a premium for this address, which offers expansive views of the Capitol Building and the monuments as well as proximity to lawmakers in Congress.

Across the river, Rosslyn’s Wilson Boulevard is the most expensive street in the Northern Virginia market. Here rents average between $56 and $65 per square foot. With new trophy office buildings recently completed or scheduled to open in the next several months, the JLL report says rates are trending from the mid-$50s per square foot to the low-$60s per square foot for buildings with full-service amenities.  “The new trophy buildings not only deliver high-end modern office space, but will help transform Rosslyn from a sleepy 9-to-5 business district into a vibrant live-work-play neighborhood,” Michael Hartnett, senior research manager in JLL’s Northern Virginia office, said in a statement.

By comparison, rents are much lower in a smaller market such as Richmond. According to Cushman & Wakefield |Thalhimer’s third-quarter report, the greater Richmond office market had an overall vacancy of 7.5 percent and an overall average asking rent of $18.85 for all office property classes. In the more expensive Class A office properties, the average asking rent was $21.06 per square foot.