Looking to rent an office in Baltimore? If so, let me recommend that you opt for, oh, anywhere other than Pratt Street downtown. Rents there average $26.37 per square foot, the highest rate in the city and one of the highest in the country, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.
Companies opt for pricey locations for a number of reasons: premium office space sends a message, the amenities are presumably top-notch, and you get to rub shoulders other high-powered businesses. But I have a hard time believing that any office is worth the $110 per square foot that business owners are paying on Sand Hill Road, in the heart of Silicon Valley. But that’s the price that some people are willing to pay: The economic recovery combined with a slowdown in new construction means that fancy office space is at a premium, even just a few short years after the so-called Great Recession.
I’ve got to say, there’s something fundamentally disconcerting about the idea of someone paying $30 per square foot on Pratt Street while the city still has one of the highest vacancy rates in the nation. But it’s not as if businesses can take over and rehab abandoned buildings and turn them into cool upgraded office spaces — oh wait, yes they can…
