By CAROL TRAPANI
Commercial real estate investors and tenants closed out 2007 closely watching year-end statistics to see how the weakening national economy could affect them.
Vacancy rates in the airport central/ coast area remain in the single digits with the exception of the office market, which ended the year at 12.7%. The availability rate for the office segment, which includes vacant and occupied sublease space, rose to 17.4%.
Conversely, the constant theme in the Orange County industrial market is record-low availability and vacancy rates at 5.7% and 2.7%, respectively.
Vacancy rates for OC’s retail market increased to 4.1% from 3.2% from 2006 levels primarily attributed to increase vacancy in shop space.
In polling CB Richard Ellis brokers in their respective specialties, the question posed was “What was the most significant occurrences impacting your market space in 2007?”
– Office: The office market is in a period of rebalancing due to the fallout from the mortgage and homebuilding industries coupled with the completion of 400,000-plus square feet of new construction.
– Industrial: Recent sale values of industrial properties in the airport market have reached new high-water marks. As a result there will continue to be upward pressure on rents as evidenced by historical high asking rents ranging from 75 cents to 85 cents per square foot.
– Retail: Retail sales posted a much stronger than anticipated rise in spite of the housing market downturn and sky rocketing energy costs.
Trapani is a first vice president in the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis.
The Real Estate Watch Chart – Net Absorption, Rates, etc. is provided in a Adobe Reader .pdf print-friendly file.
CLICK HERE
to download
REAL ESTATE WATCH CHARTS
Please note: to download the file, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. For a free copy of the software,
click here.
