The main causes: more than one million sf of new space delivered and more than 400,000 sf returned to the market. These things "further added pressure to an already saturated marketplace," it says. And the county has another 985,512 sf of office space under construction.

These factors also contributed to a negative year-to-date absorption rate of 913,906 sf. The report calls this a "sharp drop" from the positive 623,398 sf recorded last year and the 308,645 sf just last quarter.In fact, in the second quarter, the vacancy rate for the county grew 1.5% to 18%, according to a similar study by Cushman & Wakefield. This, however, is not a major concern to some area brokers.

As the Codina Realty report, and other recent reports, states leasing and sales activity proved strong in the third quarter, despite the current economic slowdown. More than 2.9 million sf of space has been sold during the first three quarters--more than one million sf of that in the third quarter alone.