TAMPA, FL-The East Tampa market is heating up. The submarket saw three new office leases totaling 11,974 square feet last week in the Lakecrest Building in Corporex Park at the MLK Blvd. exit at 1-4.

Paula Buffa and James Moler, senior vice presidents in the Office Group at Grubb & Ellis|Commercial Florida negotiated all three transactions on behalf of the landlord, Professor’s Capital. The new tenants are Sulphuric Acid Trading Company, the New York-based law firm of Traub Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry LLP, and Special Applications Group.

“The rise in new leases in the East Tampa market helped bring a positive absorption number to that submarket at the close of the third quarter—the first quarter of positive absorption in the East Tampa submarket in more than three years,” Buffa says, noting that two of the three tenants relocated from other submarkets.

According to the Grubb & Ellis Third Quarter Office Trends Report for Tampa, tenants are still pounding landlords there. That trend is expected to continue through next year as competition among landlords remains fierce. Still, leaner deals are driving continued positive absorption.

The East Tampa submarket has about 4.6 million square feet of office space, and about 864,000 remains empty. That’s a 20% vacancy rate. The average asking rents in East Tampa are $20.44 for class A office space and $18.36 for class B space, according to Grubb & Ellis.