Tampa Bay’s office market posted its strongest year of leasing activity in more than a decade in 2025 as companies continued to absorb space across the region’s highest-end buildings while new construction remained limited.
Companies leased 4.6 million square feet of office space across the region last year, the highest annual volume in more than 10 years, according to a report from JLL.
The market absorbed 600,370 square feet during the year, the strongest annual gain in nine years, while direct vacancy fell to 13.9%, down 160 basis points from a year earlier.
Much of that demand flowed into Trophy and Class A properties, which absorbed 655,700 square feet in 2025, their strongest performance since 2015.
JLL found that 20% of office buildings account for more than 70% of vacant space across the region, while roughly 35% have no vacancy at all.
Downtown Tampa, Westshore and downtown St. Petersburg combined for 368,000 square feet of Trophy and Class A absorption last year, reducing availability in those buildings to its lowest level since 2018 and helping push asking rents up 7.1% from a year earlier.
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The shrinking supply of premium space is increasingly visible in projects delivered during the current development cycle. Union East & West in Westshore is fully leased, Midtown West is fully leased, SkyCenter One has less than 5,000 square feet available and 1001 Water Street has fewer than 20,000 square feet remaining.
Those buildings absorbed much of the demand generated by some of the market’s largest office users, including Fisher Investments, which occupied 142,900 square feet at Renaissance III, GEICO, which took 128,300 square feet at Corporate Oaks II and III, Holland & Knight, which leased 100,500 square feet at Highland Oaks III and Bankers Financial, which expanded into 53,200 square feet at the Duke Energy Building.
The companies taking space reflect the industries that have driven much of Tampa Bay’s office demand in recent years. Financial services firms accounted for 26% of leasing activity between 2021 and 2025, followed by professional and business services at 23%, health care at 15%, technology at 10% and legal services at 9%.
Together, those sectors accounted for more than 80% of leasing activity during the period.
The development pipeline, meanwhile, has continued to shrink. Only 96,000 square feet of office space remained under construction at the end of the first quarter, according to JLL.
Gasworx is Tampa’s only office building currently under construction, while future phases of Water Street Tampa, the Historic Gas Plant redevelopment, Halcyon at The Central and Heights Tower remain in planning or proposal stages after groundbreakings across the market slowed sharply following the pandemic.
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