LOS ANGELES-“The office sector will remain depressed as long asunemployment levels remain high,” so says Richard Green, directorof the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate and co-author of the9^th annual Casden Southern California Industrial andOffice Forecast. The USC Lusk Center for Real Estate’s annualcheck-up of Southern California’s industrial and office marketsproduced vastly different bills of health for the two real estatesectors this year.

The findings, which were unveiled Tuesday, signal modest growthfor the industrial market, while the office market will remaindepressed. “Clouding the office forecast is a shift in thetraditional workplace,” Green continues. “Today, cubicles are thenorm and concepts such as telecommuting, ‘hoteling’ andoffice-sharing are becoming more common and having an increasingimpact on demand for office space. As a result, the office marketmay not see rent increases until the overall economyimproves.”

As for the industrial sector, Tracey Seslen, co-author of theforecast, says that the industrial sector is showing signs ofrecovery across the board. “The strong Chinese and Indianeconomies, combined with the weakened US dollar, have increaseddemand for US manufactured goods and greatly increased porttraffic.” Seslen notes that a 16.9% increase in port traffic overlast year will help stabilize—and in some areas,increase—industrial rents in the Southern California region.