Absorption totaled positive 90,498 square feet for the first half of the year. The negative 33,004 square feet in absorption during the second quarter detracted from the positive 123,502 square feet absorbed in the first quarter of the year, as the market continued to struggle to absorb the 1.5 million square feet of new office space inventory added in 2010. An additional 787,184 square feet of space is currently under construction, and expected to be completed in the second half of this year.

“Obviously 600 Brickell is going to deliver substantially vacant later this year,” Holly says. “So when that comes on the rolls it's going to increase the vacancy. I don’t see enough absorption in the short-term to overcome that. It’s still definitely a tenant’s market.”

Overall asking rents remained virtually unchanged, ending the second quarter at $30.10 per square foot, up from $29.99 per square foot at the end of the first quarter, according to CushWake. Asking rents for class A space averaged $36.37 per square foot at the end of the quarter, on par with $36.40 per square foot at the end of the first quarter.

“It will be a while before we see rent growth across the market,” Holly says. “We are seeing it in certain buildings. The optimists hang on to that while the pessimists hang on to the fact that other buildings are dropping rates because they’ve lost tenants.”