Dayton leads U.S. in vacant offices, report says

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Dayton has the highest office vacancy rate among the nation’s metropolitan areas, and the portion of its office space that is unoccupied is at least at a 13-year high, according to new data from a real estate research firm.

Although on average, office vacancies across the U.S. dipped last fiscal quarter, the Dayton metro area’s vacancy rate rose, making it the 10th straight quarter where the rate either increased or did not budge, according to data from Reis Inc., a New York-based commercial real estate research company.

But local development officials and real estate experts questioned the validity of Reis’ data because other research suggests that Dayton doesn’t even make the top 10 list of cities with the emptiest office buildings.

John Blair, professor of economics with the Raj Soin College of Business at Wright State University, said Dayton’s high office vacancy rate is tied to the loss of the headquarters of major companies, such as NCR Corp. and Mead, and it also reflects a shifting preference of businesses for more suburban environments.

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