TAMPA, FL-Sunlabs has signed a long-term lease expansion agreement at the Beaumont Business Center off W. Hillsborough Ave. Sunlabs was leasing 6,612 square feet at the complex. The new deal adds 8,500 square feet and six additional years to the lease.

James Moler, senior vice president in the Office Group at Grubb & Ellis in Tampa, represented Sunlabs, an analytical testing lab. Roxanne Kemph, first vice president in Brokerage Services in CB Richard Ellis’s Tampa office, represented Beaumont Business Center. Both brokers declined to terms of the deal.

“Sunlabs had previously given up some space to right-size in line with what was happening in the economy,” Moler tells GlobeSt.com. “Now, things are stabilizing and business is good. They went through a healthy expansion and needed more space again.”

Expansion is one trend in Tampa’s office market that’s helping the slow rebound. In the third quarter of 2010, overall vacancy in the Tampa Bay market declined—and leasing activity picked up significantly in September.

According to Grubb & Ellis, Tampa Bay’s office market saw positive absorption for the second straight quarter. Year-to-date absorption is still negative, but the market could return to the black for 2010 if the third quarter pace continues through the remainder of the year.

Kemph tells GlobeSt.com that lease deals are ultra competitive in every Tampa submarket. The Beaumont Business Center is in the Northwest submarket, which feeds off the Westshore area. The 252,000-square-foot Beaumont Business Center is 80% occupied.

“When Westshore rates get high, this submarket does very well because it gets some of the overflow from Westshore as companies look for more competitive rates,” Kemph says. “But as long as Westshore remains very competitive, then this market doesn’t see as much activity. So this was a good deal for us.”

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