What to watch in Tampa Bay, Florida’s office market in 2026
The Tampa Bay office sector enters 2026 after its strongest leasing year in a decade. The market recorded approximately 7.3 million square feet of leasing activity in 2025, surpassing seven million square feet for the first time since 2013.
This surge, concentrated in four- and five-star properties, pushed availability in top-tier buildings down to 14.9%, the lowest in five years. While four- and five-star availability is still above the 2018 low of 9.3%, many brokers note that high-quality space in prime locations is increasingly scarce.
Flight to quality — what’s left?
Tenant preference for centrally located, amenity-rich corridors, such as Westshore and downtown Tampa, continues to dominate. But options are dwindling. Availability in newer four- and five-star buildings sits at 7.4%, compared to nearly 16% in older stock. In Westshore, the figure drops to 4.3%, or just 72,000 square feet. Midtown East, completed in May 2025, is already 95% leased, with its last full floor, 26,420 square feet, still on the market. For tenants seeking premium space, choices are increasingly limited.
Speculative construction near record-lows
New office development is scarce. Of the roughly 240,000 square feet under construction, only 100,000 square feet is speculative. The lone speculative project underway is Grow Financial Place at Gasworx in Ybor City, a 106,000-square-foot building largely preleased by Grow Financial, with just 46,000 square feet available.
“It takes two-plus years to build an office building, and the Tampa Bay market is going to be in a bit of a bind for new construction now that GasWorx has officially delivered,” says Bill Reeves, managing director with JLL. But it’s more than just the building; “flight to quality is also flight to the surrounding amenities, whether that be existing amenities or the office building being part of a greater mixed-use development,” adds Reeves.
Beyond Gasworx, the next major project is Halcyon at The Central in downtown St. Petersburg, a 140,000-square-foot property, marking the city’s first new office building in over 30 years. Ark Invest has preleased the top floor, but construction won’t begin until later this year, with completion slated for late 2027.
Redevelopment over new development?
Instead of a wave of new office construction, 2026 may be defined by redevelopment and demolition. Several properties traded in 2025 with plans for conversion. In East Tampa, a former Progressive Insurance campus will be demolished to make way for a 550,000-square-foot industrial park.
Downtown Tampa saw Stock Development acquire 601 N. Ashley Drive for $40 million, which includes approvals for a 43-story residential tower spanning nearly one million square feet of space.
Reeves believes the next frontier of office development in Tampa will be connecting Tampa’s core central business district with Armature Works and Tampa Heights. “There is a lot of attention from developers north of the Straz Center and around Armature Works. I think that is where we start to see some land assemblages, to set up future development along that corridor in the next five years or so,” says Reeves.
The big picture
Strong interest in high-quality space is running up against a shrinking pool of options. Tenants continue to gravitate toward the best‑located and most amenitized buildings, but with so few new projects moving forward, the supply isn’t keeping pace. Several older properties are being cleared or reimagined for other uses, which further tightens the market. How tenants and developers respond to that constraint will likely play a major role in determining what Tampa Bay’s office landscape looks like over the course of 2026.
(CoStar Analytics | By Michelle Rumore)
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