GlobeSt.com Update: Office Market Sags but South Side Looks Like Future Winner

ATLANTA-The 118.5 million-sf office market in Atlanta is in a tailspin but is expected to pull out or stabilize by year end, new research by locally based Richard Bowers & Co. indicates. Net absorption, occupancy and new construction are down. Vacancies are up, the highest since fourth quarter 1999.

“A significant economic downturn in the Atlanta office market” is how company president and broker Richard E. Bowers characterizes the first-half performance. But he believes “the worst of the office market downturn has already occurred.”

He expects improvement by year end in product deliveries and absorption despite 4.5 million sf of sublease space dumped on the market, largely by the high-tech sector.