No Recovery Seen for Reeling Office Market

DENVER-The local office market won’t recover any time soon from its two years of a substantial decline, which follows nearly a decade of growth. That is the conclusion of a recent Grubb & Ellis report that shows an overall office vacancy rate of 19.3% and 711,000 sf of negative absorption this year–600,000 sf of it in the Central Business District.

“Denver’s office market is still reeling from the implosion of the high-tech, telecommunications and financial services sectors that occurred in late 2001,” according to the report.

Lease rates are down 13% since the end of 2000, and property owners are offering aggressive tenants such as rent abatement, free parking and generous tenant improvement allowances.