Tampa's Class A Office Vacancies Near 20%

TAMPA, FL-This city’s 30-million-sf office market continues to plod along in the net absorption column while trying to overcome the 824,000-sf loss of MCI WorldCom last year in the 4.8-million-sf Northeast Tampa submarket, according to a new Colliers Arnold market analysis.

Tampa ended 2003 with a negative net absorption of 100,000 sf, the market’s worst performance since 2000 when the negative absorption number dropped to 136,000 sf. Class A vacancies are at 19.7%; direct vacancies, at 15.7%. “Although leasing picked up during the third and fourth quarters (of 2003), it was not enough to make up for the negative absorption and leasing activity experienced during the first quarter,” says Colliers Arnold research associate Jeremy Kral.

Class A rents average asking base rents are $19.77 per sf; the overall rental rate is $17.89 per sf. “With lower rents than most of the larger metropolitan markets, an economy as diverse as it is resilient and a workforce that is growing in size and stature, Tampa Bay is well-positioned to emerge from the recession as a strong contender in this new economy,” Kral says.