2025 Office Outlook Near John Wayne Airport

Orange County’s Economy: A Bright Outlook
The Orange County economy thrives due to its excellent weather, 40 miles of coastline, and a population of over 3 million residents. Key industries in the Newport Beach/Irvine John Wayne Airport area include finance, energy, professional services, life sciences, and technology. In recent years, tech media companies from Silicon Beach in LA’s South Bay, such as El Segundo, have started moving into the region. As a result, the area now ranks among the top five office space markets on the West Coast and the top 30 nationwide.

Office Market Outlook: 2025
Orange County offers 40 million square feet of office space, but high vacancy rates remain a challenge. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the vacancy rate dropped to 17.5%. While this is an improvement, it is still higher than historical averages. On a positive note, net absorption has been positive for six consecutive quarters, with a gain of 55,000 square feet this past quarter.

In early 2024, the Irvine/Newport Beach market reported a 22% vacancy rate. Much of this was due to Irvine’s surplus of empty office spaces. With demand for office space remaining flat, developers have halted new projects. This has left the construction pipeline empty for the first time since the 2008 global crisis.

Tenants now focus on “flight-to-quality” spaces—smaller, high-end offices with walkable locations and better amenities. Lower rents have created opportunities, particularly in non-core Class A buildings and all Class B and Class C properties.

John Wayne Airport Area: A Premium Submarket
The John Wayne Airport submarket, including Newport Beach, is among the county’s most sought-after areas. Median office rents here are $38 per square foot annually. This submarket features Newport Center and Fashion Island, where mid-rise office buildings are close to desirable residential neighborhoods.

Fashion Island boasts some of the county’s most prestigious office spaces. Rents in Newport Beach can exceed $5.50 per square foot monthly, or $66 annually, making it the most expensive office market in Orange County.

Challenges in Navigating the Market
The size and complexity of Orange County’s office market make finding the right space a time-intensive task. Tenants can achieve the best outcomes by working with experts who understand local market dynamics.

Market Profile for Airport Area Office

The John Wayne Airport Area Office Market

Orange County Skyline

Our focus at OCAirportOfficeSpace.com is Class A and Class B office space near the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, apart from the more than 20 million square feet of office which stretches down to the Y where the 405 Freeway intersects with the 5 Freeway in Irvine.

Orange County consists of 3 million people in 34 cities over 800 square miles.  The sun shines 275 days out of the year, and John Wayne International (SNA) airport ranks at the top in satisfaction. OC was once designated as the 7th largest economy in the United States.  The area has the highest concentration of science-technology- engineering-mathematics (STEM) workers in Southern California.  100,000 people work in the John Wayne Airport area.

The area’s economic vitality is reflected by its finance, energy, professional services, life sciences and technology tenants. A few major occupiers are Pacific Mutual, PIMCO, Chipotle, Clean Energy Fuels, APL, Blizzard Entertainment, Broadcom, Western Digital, Ingram Micro, Jazz Semiconductor, Canyon Create, UPS and Skyworks Solutions. This underscores the airport area’s appeal to legacy sector office tenants to emerging fields like media & streaming.

Remarkably Donald Bren’s Irvine Company controls 18 million square feet of office space.  Other institutional office building landlords in the area are Blackstone, Hines, Greenlaw, Olen, LBA, Segerstrom, TA Realty and Deutsche Bank.

In Q2 2024 there are a myriad of direct and subleases available.   Finding the right space and the best deal is difficult and time-consuming.  Using a tenant broker with specific local knowledge and relationships is invaluable to help you beat the odds.

john wayne airport map

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