MIAMI-At a time when downtown Miami and Brickell Avenue, just tothe south of downtown, are benefiting from the influx of thousandsof new residents, the office market in the area continues to chalkup higher vacancies. This is exacerbated by new projects coming tocompletion.

The Miami-Dade office market as a whole had 516,963 square feetof leasing activity in the first quarter of 2010, a 6.7% increasefrom the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a Cushman &Wakefield’s MarketBeat office report. Still, the overall vacancyrate increased to 18.5% from 17% for the same period.

While the sublease vacancy rate actually fell from 1.5% to 1.3%,between fourth quarter 2009 and first quarter 2010, more directspace became available during the first three months of the year,thanks to the completion of two new buildings—the 585,000-squarefoot 1450 Brickell building on Brickell Avenue, and the87,358-square foot Causeway Square building in North Miami, roughlyten miles to the north. Both of these buildings were completed inJanuary.