By JOHN WEINER, ALEX TELSON and CAMERAN LINDEE
The Orange County office market sustained its stable growth in the first quarter.
The John Wayne Airport area has one of the highest asking rates in the market, boasting an increase of 26 cents from the fourth quarter to $2.87 per square foot in the first quarter.
The greater airport area, which consists of 44 million rentable square feet of space, saw a 0.3% rise in vacancy, which increased to 9.1%.
In all, there is 4 million square feet of vacant space in the area.
The airport area continues to consistently see healthy levels of demand, evident by the positive net absorption of 170,000 square feet in the first quarter.
OC has a diverse economy of highly educated professionals. In the past year, professional and business services jobs rose by 7,700.
A majority of the positions were in the scientific and technical industry. Education and health also grew, adding 8,100 jobs.
With all the jobs added in the past year, we anticipate some will trickle down into airport office buildings.
Construction
More than 2 million square feet of space is under construction in the airport area. In the first quarter, 299,856 square feet was completed.
Leasing for other buildings under construction has been relatively slow but gained momentum in the past few months with leases by Greenberg Traurig LLP, Singer Lewak Greenbaum & Goldstein LLP, Wachovia Corp., Pathway Capital Management LLC and Bixby Land Co.
While rents continue to stay strong and preleasing and vacancy rates are at a virtual standstill, it is anticipated that the airport area should see positive absorption this year.
We remain optimistic that the overall economy of OC will remain strong, which could fuel demand for office space in the airport area in 2007.
Weiner is a senior vice president in the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis.
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