"These sales figures are a strong indication that the Palm Beach County office market is experiencing renewed investor interest and is beginning to stabilize in what was previously a fluctuating economy in 2002 and early 2003," the report states. Class A building investment is expected to continue in the CBD and other submarkets this year.

Also, says the report, the Boca Raton submarket, the county's dominant corporate sector, is starting to recover. The submarket's fourth-quarter statistics show almost 50,000 sf of positive direct net absorption, compared with negative 35,421 sf in the previous fourth quarter. The improvement was affected greatly by activity in class A office buildings along the Federal Highway corridor, including the 595 Financial Center and the Renaissance Centre, both of which were successful at pre-leasing and delivered about 70% occupied.

The Boca sublease vacancy rate at year-end declined about one-third from 2.8% in 2002 to 2%. Leasing activity totaled more than one million sf for the second year in a row. For reasons such as these, Boca Raton is expected to continue to be a principal corporate setting this year.