Office Leasing Strong In Class-A SoCal Buildings

LOS ANGELES-While recovery is “very asset specific and submarket specific across the region,” the office leasing market in South Orange and Los Angeles counties is seeing an uptick in activity and demand, say Blaine Annett and Colby Annett, who lead the newly opened Los Angeles office of Stream Realty Partners. Blaine Annett tells GlobeSt.com, “Nice, quality buildings with strong ownership behind them have fared much better than the owners who are struggling just to hold onto the asset. Tenants don’t want to be in those types of buildings.”

He adds that owners who have maintained their buildings to a high standard and/or made significant capital improvements to their projects during the downturn are reaping the benefits now as demand has picked up and their buildings are making leases. This is being evidenced by increasing rental rates in certain regions, including the Irvine Spectrum and Aliso Viejo submarkets, which have seen a handful of larger leases get signed in 2012. Owners are beginning to increase the asking rental rates in these areas as the available supply has tightened up significantly.