Vacancies in downtown Cincinnati’s office market surged during the final months of 2025, according to a new report from Colliers.
The vacancy rate in the Downtown business district − the region’s largest office market − jumped more than three full percentage points in the fourth quarter, rising to 18.4% from 14.6% the previous quarter.
The rate was 15.4% at the end of 2024, Colliers reported.
Class A office space still in demand
Still, Colliers notes, despite the sharp increase in vacancies, demand for high-quality Class A office space is growing.
There was 65,000 square feet of office space under construction in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to no new construction in the same period a year earlier.
“New construction and deliveries this year were all Class A space suggesting builders, owners, and tenants are being more intentional and are after high-quality spaces,” Colliers stated in its report.
Office vacancy figures vary by report and are based on the property portfolios tracked by individual brokerage and leasing firms.
Cushman & Wakefield, one of the largest commercial real estate services firms in the region, has not yet released its fourth-quarter office report for Cincinnati.
However, its third-quarter report showed a Downtown vacancy rate of 24%, essentially unchanged from the 24.2% rate recorded during the same period a year earlier.
Vacancies remain near historic highs
Vacancy rates in the high teens and 20s, which are historic highs for the market, highlight the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as return-to-office mandates have done little to reverse broader office leasing trends.
Following the pandemic declaration in March 2020, most employers adopted remote and hybrid work models, sharply reducing demand for traditional office space.
Nationally, the share of workdays performed remotely has climbed from 7% before the pandemic to 28% today, according to Moody’s Analytics.
U.S. office vacancies hit all-time record in 2025
In the second quarter of last year, the U.S. office vacancy rate reached a record high of 20.6%, Moody’s reported.
Beyond downsizing by office tenants, lower demand for office space has also led to an increase in older Downtown office buildings being converted to apartments or mixed-use buildings, removing them from the office landscape entirely.
In 2024, Cincinnati ranked among the Top 10 U.S. cities for office-to-apartment conversions, according to RentCafe, using data from Yardi Matrix. The city ranked fifth nationally for adaptive reuse projects in 2023, according to a separate RentCafe report.
Office market ‘uncertain’ in 2026
As these trends accelerate, Downtown Cincinnati could continue to see more office space vacated than leased.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, Downtown saw a net loss of 126,677 square feet of office space, a condition known in the industry as “negative net absorption.” The figure for the year was 249,000 square feet.
“With decreasing absorption, office conversions in the works, and demand holding steady, the Cincinnati office market had a slow but balanced year overall,” Colliers wrote in its report. “This mixed market heads into the new year with uncertainty…but healthy demand.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Downtown office vacancies spiked in last three months of 2025
Reporting by Randy Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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