DENVER-Although there are some wide variances in the local retail market in regard to vacancies, ranging from 2% to 10.3% including sublease space, fundamentally, the retail market remains a bright spot, according to the latest Denver-area report by CB Richard Ellis.

Richard M. Calhoun, senior marketing director of CBRE, says a lot of "national attention is (being) generated by our improving infrastructure, strengthening economy new developments and the world-renown FasTracks projects." Calhoun says that all of these positive signs "directly contribute to a strong retail market, and continued optimism is felt throughout much of the market.

"Although big-box retailers continue to pioneer new growth areas, new types of retail centers such as mixed-use, lifestyle centers and transit-oriented developments are becoming increasingly common," he adds.

The report shows the Central and West corridors had the largest drops in vacancy at 7% and 5% losses, respectively, from last quarter, while Northeast, Boulder and South showed the greatest increases in vacancy at 7%, 2%, and 2% increases, respectively, from last quarter.

The highest vacancy rates are in the West at 10.3% and Northeast at 8.8%. The lowest vacancy rates were reported in the Colorado Boulevard submarket at 2% and the Southeast at 5%.

Construction, meanwhile, soared from a year ago to 3.8 million sf from 793,800 sf, but was actually is down slightly from the first quarter. There is another two million sf under construction along the Northeast corridor, with more than one million sf coming from the Larkridge project.