About a quarter of the city’s rentable office space sits empty — just over 4 million square feet, according to an end-of-2023 market report from local real estate firm Price Edwards & Company. That’s pretty much the same as in 2022. But while suburban office use rose a little last year, more vacancies popped up downtown.

The report shows downtown offices have a significantly higher price per square foot than any other area of the city. And that makes them less marketable. Right now, there’s higher demand for smaller, more affordable office spaces.

Nationwide, office space vacancy sits around 20%, according to a report from Moody’s Analytics. That’s the highest since the firm began tracking in 1979.

But vacancies haven’t ballooned in every commercial rental market in and around OKC. Shopfronts across the metro only saw a small uptick in vacancy last year, from 8.5% to 8.9%. Price Edwards attributes that in part to bankruptcies, like Tuesday Morning, David’s Bridal and Party City.