Saturday, May 31, 2008

Tampa, FL Office Space Demand Weakens but Rents Rise


TAMPA, FL--The increasing economic turmoil during the first quarter of 2008 proved to be detrimental to Tampa’s office market activity as tenants, investors and lenders largely remained on the sidelines, according to the First Quarter 2008 Tampa Office Market Report announced by Randy Smith (top right photo), Director of Research in the Tampa office of GVA Advantis.

Unoccupied space, including sublet, jumped almost 600,000 square feet in the first period pushing the overall vacancy rate to 15.3 percent.

Demand for office space weakened, but overall rental rate growth continued to move forward. The average asking rate for Tampa’s office space reached $22.61 per square foot, up 4.4 percent over this time last year.

The bumpy economic road of 2008 will persist until at least to the mid-year point and the lagging effects on commercial real estate will likely dampen activity for most of this year. The weakness in Tampa’s employment market will inhibit demand for office space, although certain sectors such as medical businesses and educational institutions will continue to have needs in the market.

Tampa’s sales activity in the first quarter was an improvement over last year’s weak start, but there is little chance that 2008 investment activity will match the $567 million in transaction volume posted in 2007. Office sales for the first three months of this year totaled $51.5 million and were lacking in any class A transactions or portfolio sales.

Additional reports will be forthcoming as we monitor significant real estate activity and trends in the market.


For a complete copy of the report, please contact Randy Smith at the address below.


CONTACT:
Randy Smith, Director of Research, Advantis Real Estate Services Company,
3000 Bayport Drive, Suite 100, Tampa, FL 33607. Tel 813.342.4725 Fax 813.372.4004 E-mail rsmith@gvaadvantis.com
http://www.gvaadvantis.com/

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