Overall, while the war in Iraq ended and the stock market and economy have shown improvement, the county is still affected by more than a year of negative absorption and increased overall vacancy rates.

The Boca Raton submarket, which is typically healthy, saw the strongest absorption in the county with absorption of positive 8,578 sf. This is almost a 70,000 sf increase compared with the negative 60,914-sf absorption at the end of the second quarter in 2002, according to C & W. The improvement is attributed in large part to the almost 400,000 sf of leasing activity there in the second quarter. This figure accounted for two-thirds of the county's total leasing activity in that period.

In fact, seven of the eight biggest lease deals in the county second quarter occurred in Boca Raton. Among the lease transactions were Kaplan Inc.'s 28,500-sf sublease at The Millennium Building, First United Bank's 19,393-sf deal at One City Center and the Bank of Florida's 12,410-sf transaction at 595 Financial Center-Phase II.