"While not extraordinary, both of these indicators are now moving the market back toward equilibrium," according to Ross.
The Northwest sector, hit hard by the downturn in the telecom industry, shows the greatest progress by absorbing 660,000 sf, which led to its vacancy rate falling to 28.14% from 34.35%, according to Ross.
The report notes that buildings 8 and 9 in the Westmoor Technology Park--developed by a sister company to Ross--showed more than 220,000 sf of absorption.
"Also turning the corner was the Southeast Suburban sector," which absorbed 165,000 sf and saw its vacancy rate drop to 26.62% from 28.13%.
However, Downtown, which had been the strongest submarket, pedaled backwards last year.
The CBD showed negative absorption of slightly more than 150,000 sf, Ross notes, and the overall vacancy rate rose to 18.86% from 17.18%. The downtown market, however began to show signs of improvement in the last half of 2003, according to Ross.
One bright spot was that the supply of new building increased by only 530,000 sf. The space was delivered between five buildings, with more than half of this was from the 285,000-sf Legacy Plaza building in the Central Platte Valley, which was fully occupied by Gates Rubber Co. Gates moved its world headquarters from Broadway and I-25, its home for almost 90 years.
"Sales activity was vibrant with 35 properties trading for $3 million or more," Ross notes. "The general composition of transactions involved multi-tenant properties with high occupancy rate or solid-credit single tenant product."
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