Q2 Leasing Takes Airport Center Occupancy to 91%

The activity signals a continuing upturn in the Airport West submarket, in which vacancy now stands at 15.4%, down from 19% at first-quarter 2004, according to data from the local office of CB Richard Ellis. Tony Puente and Richard Bamonte, VPs in that office, represent the Airport Corporate Center's majority-stake owner, Stamford, CT-based GE Asset Management. The complex was recently on the market, at a price of $160 million, according to published reports, but Puente and Bamonte tell GlobeSt.com it is not currently for sale.

"Firms are beginning to relocate their back-office operations to the Airport/West-Dade submarket in an effort to save on rent," Bamonte says. "This, plus the lack of construction would indicate that the submarket should continue to experience decreasing vacancies. Consequently, we expect average asking rates to increase in coming months."

Currently, the average asking rates in the park are as follows, according to Puente: $23.50 per sf full-service for the four class A office buildings, $19.75 per sf full-service for the two class B office properties, $12.50 per sf triple net for the four flex/office/showroom buildings, and $7.50 per sf industrial gross for the lone warehouse building.

Among the second-quarter renewals and new leases at the center are: 10,835 sf by Todo 1 Services brokered solely by CBRE; 4,631 sf for Spectrum Investments Co., which was represented by Robert Mendez of Florida Property Tax Service; 3,009 sf by Tyco Healthcare Group, represented by Carter Hopkins of the local office of Trammell Crow Co.; 2,203 sf by CoreStaff Support Services, represented by David Preve and Toni Anderson of Cresa Partners' office here; and 1,460 sf by InterAmerican Services, brokered by the building's CBRE team.