The “C-bus” growth story is diverse and robust, and its logistics/retail strength stretches back to the 1970s and 1980s. Columbus is benefiting from a rare combination of centrality, population growth, university-led talent production, advanced manufacturing investment, flat topography, logistics infrastructure, and a remarkably diversified employment base.
The defining story is manufacturing. The semiconductor campus in New Albany remains one of the largest economic development projects in U.S. history, with the initial phase representing roughly $28 billion in investment and serving as the anchor for a rapidly expanding semiconductor ecosystem. Despite construction delays, the project has helped attract tens of billions of additional dollars throughout Central Ohio from suppliers, data centers, logistics operators, and advanced manufacturing firms. It’s not just tech either—a major pharmaceutical manufacturer just announced a massive $2.2 billion investment for a modular pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in New Albany. This is gradually creating a modern version of industrial agglomeration historically associated with Detroit, Silicon Valley, or Research Triangle Park.
The region’s industrial real estate market is taking note—new leasing demand is just shy of 14 million square feet year-to-date, the second best on record behind 18.9 million square feet of deals done during the pandemic frenzy in 2021. In the past eight quarters, Columbus’s vacancy rate has compressed by 440 basis points—second fastest in the nation after Indianapolis—to just 3.4 percent. In Pickaway County, near Rickenbacker Airport on the Franklin border, a global logistics provider took 1.2 million square feet, buoying recent absorption. A major defense technology manufacturer rolled the first Ohio-built military drone off its $910 million production line in July 2026, and has plans to create over 4,000 jobs by 2035. The development cycle is kicking into gear as a result, with the pipeline jumping from 5.9 million square feet a year ago to 17.2 million square feet. Year-over-year rent growth is 7.8 percent and accelerating.
While recent fundamentals have softened in the multifamily sector, dating back to the pandemic, Columbus has recorded rent growth in excess of the national average in 20 of 26 quarters. New supply is at a peak in 2026, surpassing 8,000 new units through 3Q 2026; however, future deliveries will collapse in the near term as only 7,000 units remain underway. This is less than one year of supply at the current absorption pace. The impending downshift in development will undoubtedly be good news for vacancy, which now stands just above 10 percent. Occupancy will likely rise quickly as steady and solid population growth (2.3 percent in the past two years) translates into enduring demand. Demand is having a record year—over 8,200 units absorbed from 1Q to 3Q 2026, well above the prior annual record of 7,900 posted in 2021.
Columbus is not known for its competitive office market, which is composed of 35 million square feet of stock. Vacancy is high at 22.5 percent but down from its peak exactly two years ago of 24 percent. Five of the last six quarters reported positive absorption, and new leasing remains healthy at 1.2 million square feet so far in 2026. (The 2017–2019 average is 1.2 million square feet for reference.) Dynamics are bifurcated across tiers and submarkets. Downtown vacancy is rising at 24.5 percent (class A 26.1 percent, top-tier 18.4 percent), while suburban vacancy is falling and recently hit 21.3 percent (class A 23.8 percent, top-tier 9.6 percent). Downtown will welcome Ohio State University in 2029 as it relocates its law school to the historic (former) Huntington Bank building.
Conversely, Columbus is known for data centers—it ranks third in the nation for operational capacity and 11th for growth in capacity underway from 2025–2026 H1. Columbus is emerging as a national leader in behind-the-meter power generation, with data center operators—dominated by hyperscalers—increasingly deploying natural gas-backed generation to accelerate development timelines and bypass utility constraints. A proposed 430-megawatt generation facility exemplifies this shift and positions Central Ohio at the forefront of a new model for large-scale digital infrastructure development. While rising political sensitivity is becoming a factor in both the Ohio Governor and Senate races, it has not diminished the standing of the market from a national perspective.
The data center space isn’t the only infrastructure spending. Columbus is building a $2 billion terminal at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, and the state put $70 million into airfield work at Rickenbacker for one of the largest defense technology companies. Downtown, the $290 million Scioto Peninsula Phase II is adding mixed-use.
Growth is increasingly visible across several transformative districts, including the New Albany corridor, Ohio State University’s Innovation District, Downtown’s Scioto Peninsula, and the Rickenbacker logistics hub. Together, these investments are creating a more diversified and interconnected regional economy, while reinforcing Columbus’s position as one of the most dynamic growth markets in the Midwest.
—Cushman & Wakefield
