Dot-Com Flameout Contributed to Downtown's Doubled Vacancies

SEATTLE-The major real estate brokerages may differ slightly on the numbers, but they all agree there’s a lot more to choose from these days when it comes to Downtown office space. The dot-com flameout is making for some lonely Downtown hallways that industry watchers say will take more than a few months to turn around.

Colliers International’s first-quarter vacancy rate survey shows a figure of 7.8% for Downtown, more than double the 3.5% recorded at the end of 2000. “We are looking at a grossly exaggerated market,” says Colliers’ Jeanette Ferguson. “A year ago, we saw volatile high-tech companies attacking the market, and now that’s no longer the case. I don’t think we’ll see an evening out before the third or fourth quarter of this year.”

The amount of sublease space also has nearly doubled since the final quarter of 2000, according to Grubb & Ellis. The company put the sublease level at 1.1 million sf, up from 621,000 sf at the end of last year.