Vacancies were near 18% in 2015 but have declined for several years and were below 16% as of early December. Leasing activity increased in 2016, with Capital One’s lease for its temporary office space netting positive absorption. However, now that the company has finished construction on its new headquarters at the former SAIC campus, it will leave backspace, which will weigh on absorption. Rent growth this year has improved modestly since 2017, and while it is far from impressive, it is a vast improvement from the losses earlier in the cycle. Investment has been strong as well—sales set a record in 2017, and while they’ve slowed this year, volume in 2018 still surpassed the historical average.
Tysons is home to a diverse tenant base concentrated in the professional and scientific services, finance, and government-related sectors, with information services also a key job sector. Major tenants include Capital One, Intelsat, National Counterterrorism Center, Freddie Mac, MITRE Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, Booz Allen Hamilton, Ernst & Young, and BAE Systems.