"There is really good solid market information coming out of the first quarter," Bo Estes, senior vice president of Grubb & Ellis Co. in Dallas, stresses to GlobeSt.com. He acknowledges that absorption had slowed in Q1, but that's not unusual since brokers and companies historically use the opening months to map out their year. In the year-to-year comparison, though, the region was down 750,000 sf when measured against 2006's Q1 absorption.

Digging into the numbers, Grubb & Ellis' local research team recorded slightly more than 570,000 sf of absorption marketwide. The bulk of the leasing fell right in line with brokers' projections in late 2006 that class B space was going to be in high demand because class A rates were rising.

"We think a lot of companies are going to be looking at class B as an alternative," assesses Stephanie S. Seno, the brokerage house's local research analyst. "And in the first quarter, there was a tremendous amount of growth in the class B area." The numbers reflect a 20,000-sf uptick for class A absorption and a 500,000-sf gain for class B.