As of the end of the first quarter, a Colliers report pegged the total sub-lease industrial space in the Kent Valley at 1,337,940 sf. Alan just completed a subsequent study of the locations of that space. He calls the results "surprising."

Kent tops the chart at 44%. Renton is a distant second with 19 percent, and Auburn slid into third at 16%. The areas with the lowest vacancies turned out to be Tukwila and Fife/Puyallup at a mere two percent each. Alan attributes Kent's woes to the large chunks of space returning from new economy companies like Webvan, while the Tacoma centered area of Fife/Puyallup consists more of "old economy" businesses that have maintained their stability.

The good news, according to Alan, is that the market for smaller spaces, under 25,000 square feet, is still experiencing a high-degree of activity. Rates for those spaces are "continuing to be stable, if not increasing." Even for moderately larger spaces the Colliers man says there are still plenty of industrial "tenants floating around." In the largest, single lease transaction this year, Colliers recently represented TAB in its 93,500-sf lease of space in Fife's Rainier Corporate Park East. The terms in that deal Alan says included a blended rate of about $0.335 to start, including 4,000 sf of office space.

Overall, Alan refers to the market as "healthy even thought we've had an onslaught of subleases." As to the big-box spaces, re-leasing them "is going to take some time." A dark cloud of a question looming over the market is what the market impact will be when local developer Ted Napp completes his new 492,124-sf industrial facility. That project, dubbed The Summit, is being built on speculation in the town of Sumner.