Ed Barnes, vice president and general manager of Black's Guide, says the results are "temperature of what's out there" and demonstrate that the industry is "experiencing signs of consistent growth after a sluggish five years."

Approximately 51% of Orlando-area respondents anticipated their average current space requirement to 'increase' in the coming six months. Denver had the second most positive outlook with 50% and in third place was Tampa with 45% of respondents predicting an "increase." The two Florida cities also both also cited an increase in average space requirements over the past six months.

In all but two out of the 20 markets tested, "banking/finance" was ranked as the leading industry to have leased commercial space over the past six months. Washington, DC and Baltimore, both which cited "government related" as the industry dominating their markets.

With space requirements, 43% of respondents said their average space needs over the last sis months were between 1,000 and 5,000 sf. The majority—55%--say average lease terms were three to five years and the average deal was worth $500,000.

When it comes to amenities, WiFi was cited as the most popular tenant request. Coming in at number two was food services and health clubs came in third. "CRE professionals are focusing on the increased demands of new tenants such as WiFi and food services and the challenges of accelerating development such as traffic issues and delays in construction permits," points out Barnes.

In fact, lack of parking topped the list nationwide as the biggest challenge to leasing commercial space today. Barnes says for developers it often becomes a question of more space or more parking. "What's the compromise?" he says. San Francisco and Michigan markets cited "excess inventory" as their major obstacle; 67% and 75%, respectively. The Orlando and New Jersey markets noted "lack of inventory" as their biggest challenge; 41%, and 31%, respectively.

There were approximately 1,000 respondents to a 10-question multiple-choice questionnaire. Brokers constituted 35% of all respondents. Founded in 1976, Black's Guide offers 55 print directories that contain information, statistics and trends on more than 88,000 properties in 19 major metropolitan markets. Its website component, BlacksGuide.com is a free searchable database of commercial properties that features a professional directory feature.

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