"In 2009, people were uncertain about the economy," but now company executives are interested in making decisions about renting space, says Paula Buffa, senior vice president, Grubb & Ellis Commercial Florida at the Tampa office. Buffa and colleagues Jim Moler, senior vice president, and associate Maria Camarinos Hall, of the new "office agency team," at Grubb and Ellis in Tampa, recently added the Turtle Creek property, a 120,000-square-foot First Industrial Realty Trust office/flex project in Clearwater, to their portfolio of properties for which they are in charge of leasing.

At the end of first quarter 2010, there was negative absorption of 200,000 square feet of office space in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market, reports Buffa. "We will continue to have negative absorption for the rest of the year, but significantly less than in 2009, which ended with 1.2 million square feet of negative absorption," she says. In contrast, if the market activity continues the way it has been in first quarter 2010, there will only be 800,000 square feet of absorption 2010. "The negative absorption in first quarter 2010 was about half the amount in first quarter of 2009, when there was a little over 400,000 square feet of negative absorption in the area, says Buffa.

"Inquiry activity is up, both e-mail and voice mail from brokers and tenants alike, says Anne-Marie Ayers, first vice president at CB Richard Ellis in Tampa. Recently a 50,000-square-foot lease was signed in Tampa's central business district by a financial-services related company, she says. "It was the largest lease to be signed in the area in the last four quarters."