Region's Office Vacancy Reaches 15.3%

PORTLAND-Overall region-wide office vacancy stood at 15.3% at the end of September, its highest level in a decade, according to the just-released third quarter report from Grubb & Ellis.

Portland’s 16.4-million-sf CBD was on the low side of the average, at 11.7%, on the strength of 25,000 sf of positive net absorption. The Downtown submarket also showed slight positive absorption, but vacancy still jumped to 12.3% due to the delivery of new construction on the former Blitz Weinhard Brewery property.

The 22.7-million-sf suburban market, on the other hand, saw its vacancy rise to 17.9% on the weakness of 188,000 sf of negative absorption. The largest suburban submarket, the 3.8-million-sf Sunset Corridor, ended the quarter with a 30.2% vacancy rate, the highest in the suburbs.