July 07, 2025 | 3:06 p.m. ET Emily Wishingrad, Washington, D.C.

While D.C. is facing record-high office vacancy, many of the buildings with large blocks of empty space that appear to be part of the competition for tenants are effectively dead to the market.

These buildings, referred to by CBRE as “zombie” offices, have owners that are unable or unwilling to spend money — from tenant improvement allowances to attorney fees — to sign new leases, effectively making their vacant spaces unfillable.

New data released by CBRE sheds light on just how much of this space lurks beneath the surface of D.C.’s 123M SF office market. According to its second-quarter report, of the city’s 80 large blocks of space on the market — those over 50K SF — more than 30 aren’t actually able to sign new lease deals. Combined, these buildings have 5.6M SF of “zombie” space.

The epidemic is taking large chunks of available space off the leasing market and has led tenants to be on high alert, leasing experts tell Bisnow, steering them toward only the best capitalized properties and away from those that may pose a risk.

“A significant portion of the space being marketed throughout the city can’t actually transact, and that’s due to maturing loans approaching or buildings operating with cash flow that don’t necessarily cover their debt service,” Jon Glass, co-lead of the D.C. region for Savills, told Bisnow.

“So broadly speaking, there’s a lot of space available,” he added. “When you peel back the layers, you realize that not everything being marketed is truly available for a number of reasons.”

The capital issue that leads to “zombie” buildings has been growing over the past few years after interest rates rose sharply, office values decreased and the realities of postpandemic workplace dynamics solidified.

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