Where Do Tenants Come From?: Using a Geographic Information System to Study the Demand for New Office Space

Abstract

This paper traces the inter- and intra-regional moves of office tenants and demonstrates how Geographic Information Systems can be used to address substantive research questions. The research tracks the origin of office tenants in new buildings over 10,000 square feet and the destination of tenants from older buildings larger than 10,000 square feet, during 1980 to 1986. For data from Prince George's County, Maryland, the results show that in a new office building, 76 percent of establishments and 50 percent of employees were in firms that were either startups or in-migrants to the Washington metropolitan statistical area. Four percent of establishments but 22 percent of employment in new office space came from older office buildings in Prince George's county. Seven percent of establishments and 22 percent of employment were relocations from small or non-office locations, and the remaining share came from other counties in the region. Nine percent of establishments and of employment had relocated from the District of Columbia. We conclude that the new office space did not draw primarily tenants from older area buildings; rather, the majority of its tenants came from new startups and in-migrants to the Washington, D.C. region.