Boston trophy office rents hit $105.02 per square foot, a two-year high

Trophy office rents across Greater Boston averaged $105.02 per square foot in the third quarter, a two-year high, according to JLL data that Bisnow reported and The Real Deal relayed. Marketwide average asking rent for the same period was $66.49, down 30 cents from a year earlier. The trophy figure is described as average rent; the marketwide figure is described as average asking rent, so the $38.53 spread is not calculated identically.

JLL's Bryan Montgomery attributed the top-end run to a supply stop. He told Bisnow there are no office projects in the construction pipeline today and none are expected to break ground by the end of the decade. Tenants are paying more at the top of the market than they ever have, he said, and that pattern will continue and intensify.

Back Bay leads the submarkets with average asking rents close to $130 per square foot, and downtown Boston ranked second, having hit its highest per-square-foot mark in the second quarter. Law firms are doing the leasing at the top: Greenberg Traurig signed the quarter's largest lease, 82,000 square feet at Hines' South Station Tower.

Below the trophy tier, Class A space that isn't top-tier saw asking rents fall from $76.16 per square foot a year ago to $74.84 last quarter. Trophy high-rise availability tightened to 3.2% by the end of September, per the JLL data. That split lines up with the construction-freeze bet behind Hines' shift from buying to building.