Davenport is part of a Voit team including Louis Tomaselli,Mitch Zehner, Hayden Socci and Mike Boomer that represents WaltonStreet on the North Orange County industrial properties. Voit has aunique window into the industrial leasing world in Orange Countybecause, as GlobeSt.com reported earlier this year, the companyhandles leasing for 19 business parks in Orange County totalingmore than 3.3 million sf that are owned by Walton Street.

Davenport tells GlobeSt.com that much of the industrial leasingin Orange County is in deals ranging from about 1,000 sf to 5,000sf, often with existing tenants taking more space in the sameindustrial park or signing short-term renewals. He cites a numberof reasons for the trend, which contrasts somewhat from conditionsbefore the credit crunch and the economic downturn, when smallbusiness owners were buying industrial buildings seemingly as fastas developers could build them.

Some of the tenants who are signing are would-be buyers, andDavenport says that one of the reasons that some business ownersare leasing rather than buying is that they want to preservecapital to run their companies. "Business owners are verycash-conscious now, and their thinking is that rather than put acertain amount of capital into buying a building, they are betteroff putting the money into their business," he explains.