The report forecasts that LA's office vacancy rate will stand at about 11.7% in mid-2003, down from today's 12.2%. Importantly, Delta's figures take into account the amount of sublet space that is available now and will likely become available over the next two years.

"Without the sublet space, we're probably looking at a vacancy factor of just 10% to 11% in the summer of 2003," Tong Saetia, a Delta Associates VP and research director for its Western Region, tells GlobeSt.com. "That's a pretty healthy figure."

Delta Associates is the research arm of Chicago-based property-management giant Transwestern Commercial Services. Transwestern manages more than 100 million sf of commercial space across the US, including more than 20 million sf in California.