By some early estimation, overall Downtown vacancy is registering near 10%, but Aigner many of what he calls the "true Class A" high rises are faring much better. "With the exception of Bank of America tower, most buildings--like Washington Mutual, Key Tower and Two Union Square--are very, very well leased," says Aigner. "The US Bank building may be at 10%, but Key Tower is at about 3% and Two Union is under 3%."

Aigner then turns to the less rosy part of the picture, "What goes along with those vacancies are where Class A rents are today." About 40% off where they were at in the salad days of just a few years ago. "According to our brokers, the highest-priced space in downtown right now is $42/sf fully serviced," says Aigner. "That's a long way down from the upper $50's we were seeing a few years back."

And then there are the subleases. "There's still a tremendous amount of sublease space we're competing with--about 1.8 million square feet," says the Colliers' chief. "Look at DSHS's recent move into the 120,000 sf of Amazon.com's former space in 705 Union." While Aigner notes that Amazon.com was pulled off the lease and the DSHS deal was written directly, it was still cut at a per/sf rate in the upper $20's. "And that's fully serviced—gross rents!" Aigner notes.