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Fairfield Office Availability Rate Up in First Quarter

STAMFORD-Despite leasing activity that is still robust in historical terms, the office availability rates in Fairfield County and Downtown Stamford edged up in the first quarter of this year, according to Insignia/ESG.

By John Jordan | Updated on April 24, 2001

STAMFORD-Some corporate downsizings as well as continued fallout from the troubles in the dot-com sector caused a significant amount of space to be put back on the market in Fairfield County in the first quarter of this year. Insignia/ESG, in its recently released First Quarter Commercial Market Report for Fairfield County, notes that the availability rate edged up almost a percentage point from the first quarter of 2000 to 11%, as more than 592,960 sf of negative absorption impacted the market. At the end of the same period last year, Fairfield had seen 673,260 sf of positive absorption.

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.”

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