Carolyn Davis with the research department of the Seattle office of Cushman & Wakefield tells GlobeSt.com the brokerage house is in the latter stages of compiling the number on the office market around Puget Sound.
Davis says downtown Seattle's offices (including all classes) closed 2001 with a direct vacancy rate of 8.1% and an overall rate of 13%. With the caveat that Cushman & Wakefield has yet to finalize the numbers, but she estimates that the first quarter rate in this 34.4-million-sf sub-market has bumped up about a percentage point.
At year end, rates for Class A space were running 4.2% for direct and 9.2% overall. With leases expiring on vacant space that has been up for sublease in downtown, Davis expects a one percent increase in directs. "But I don't expect the overall rate to have grown as quickly," says Davis adding, "I believe that figure will still be below 10%."
Not much new product has come on line in downtown since January 1. "There have only been a few smaller new buildings delivered such as 1144 Eastlake," Davis notes. (That 9-story 80,811-sf mid-rise received its first tenant in January when Zymogenetics signed on for 15,415-sf.)
While downtown Seattle's Class A landlords aren't jumping for joy with vacancies nearing 10%, they are still well ahead of the game in comparison to downtown Bellevue—the Eastside city where the majority of its four million square feet of office space is Class A. Here, Davis expects when the final figures are in the rate will hit in the vicinity of an unseemly 27.5%.
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