The East Bay office market remains a very tenant-favorable market. Class A office buildings in the Oakland CBD and Emeryville are averaging high vacancy rates at 20.2 percent and 27.9 percent respectively. Rental rates remained nearly flat recording a slight drop from $4.60 full service per square foot in Q3 2022 to $4.59 full service per square foot in Q4 2022.
While technology companies like Cisco, Salesforce, and Meta have been in the news for layoffs and reevaluating their office footprints, life science companies continue to drive demand. The top two lease transactions for the quarter were the 75,662 square foot Metagenomi sublease in Emeryville and the 43,645 square foot Vivani Medical lease in Alameda. Discovery Life Sciences also leased an additional 25,864 square feet in Alameda.