"Near non-existent demand, continued job losses and new space being delivered to the market indicate that the outlook for office space is likely to remain anemic for the next few quarters," says Ross Moore, vice president and director of research for Colliers International.

The national office market experienced its eighth consecutive quarter of negative absorption at year end 2002, "indicating that hopes for a recovery of the commercial real estate markets in the first half of 2003 may have been too optimistic," Moore says.

In Central Florida, Bobby Palta, research analyst in Collier's Orlando office, shows a negative absorption of 149,335 sf in all of the 7.9 million sf in Downtown for the first three quarters of 2002. it also reveals a negative absorption of 95,841 sf in the 3.2 million sf of class A product.