CB Richard Ellis' first vice president Kevin Calihan says Brown and Caldwell signed a 10-year lease in late 2002 for 32,000 sf, in the Opus West Corp.-owned building at 201 E. Washington St. At that time, the company took the entire fifth floor and part of the fourth floor of the 512,000-sf building. "Since then, they've grown to take 75% of the fourth floor and now a portion of the third floor, with the right to expand to the balance on the fourth floor," Calihan tells GlobeSt.com. The new deal includes a 10,000-sf option.
Calihan says the Walnut Creek, CA-based engineering firm committed to a longer lease early in its term because of Downtown's growing popularity and dwindling space. "There's a very low vacancy rate--under 5%--and not much more space on the market so we don't see rates doing down any time soon," he says.
Additionally, he says rising construction costs could lead to upward pressure on rates. "Given the extraordinarily high price of land and construction costs, space would have to rent for the high $30s for development to be justified," Calihan says. "As a result, a lot of bigger firms are doing what Brown and Caldwell did--extending their leases early to take advantage of reasonable rates."
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