Approximately 1.2 million square feet was leased countywide in the first three months of 2001, 25% more than the average amount leased per quarter over the last 10 years. This number, though, is 17% below the strong 1.4 million sf in the same period a year ago, Insignia/ESG officials say. The city's first quarter 2001 office availability rate shot up almost three percentage points from a year ago to 10.4%.

Dean Shapiro, executive director of Insignia/ESG's Westchester-Connecticut office comments, "Most of us believe Fairfield County's current increase in availability is a short-term effect of on-going economic uncertainty. Businesses are playing it close to the belt and limiting their spending during what is essentially a pause in the market. Historically, underlying market strength has always enabled Fairfield to overcome significant new availabilities. This appears to be one of those times--leasing, though lower than last year, seems relatively healthy and, without new construction, any new activity for the rest of this year should eliminate existing vacancies."

Although Fairfield's first-quarter leasing velocity of 1.2 million sf was lower than the same period a year ago, it was still above the county's 10-year quarterly average of 962,500 sf. Activity in the eastern submarket enabled this outcome, rising 79% from 2000 to 596,090 sf and claiming half of all velocity in the county so far this year. It also saw six of Fairfield's 10 largest transactions--one of which was a pre-lease for new construction at 4 Enterprise Drive in Shelton. Fairfield North also saw a minor increase of 13% in its leasing during the first quarter. In contrast, Stamford and Fairfield West--usually the market's leaders--posted year-to-date leasing declines of 52% and 43%, respectively.