Orange County’s high-rise office market cooled down in the third quarter after a robust first half of the year.
The reversal saw 43,138 square feet of negative net absorption. That brought year-to-day positive absorption down to 635,348 square feet.
The vacancy rate for high-rise office space rose to 18.6%, up from 18.4% the prior period and below 21.2% in the same period last year.
The average asking rate for high-rise space shed a penny this quarter to $2.11 per square foot.
New construction of high-rise office buildings is nearly on hold, with Newport Beach-based developer Irvine Company showing one of the few signs of stirring as it begins work on a new headquarters for Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Center.
Construction on the 380,000-square-foot high-rise for Pimco is slated for completion in late 2013.
The third quarter saw a number of high-profile office towers come on the market, including Stadium Towers Plaza, 500 Orange Tower and Griffin Towers. With the recent market volatility, many investors pulled back from the higher-quality and value-add deals in Orange County but remain eager to put up money on select deals.
Data and analysis provided by CBRE Research.
The Real Estate Watch Chart
Net Absorption, Rates, etc. is provided in a Adobe Reader .pdf print-friendly file.
