Autodesk is reportedly looking to sublease its entire leasehold -- two floors totaling 60,000 square feet--at 4000 Civic Center Dr., a four-story building. It is also seeking a sublessor for approximately 25,000 square feet of newer LEED-certified plug-and-play space that housed its sustainability showcase at 1 McInnis Pkwy. The larger lease runs through 2010, the smaller through 2013. The lead listing brokers are Phil Arnautou of Colliers International and Glen Dowling of Cushman & Wakefield.
About 300 workers from the two spaces on the sublease market are being moved into one of its two main Autodesk headquarters buildings, 4040 Civic Center and 111 McInnis, according to local news publications. The lease for at least one of those buildings expires at the end of this year, according to SEC filings. An Autodesk spokesperson was not immediately available to confirm the information.
The subleasing is directly related to the company's previously announced cost-reduction plan, which included a 10% reduction in its 7,500-person global workforce that will affect 135 of the 1,200 employees in San Rafael before the end of the first quarter. Worldwide, Autodesk leased just over two million square feet in 121 locations globally as of early 2008. At that time, the company said its facilities were on average 79% occupied.
Office vacancy in the 3.9-million-square-foot San Rafael submarket began 2009 at 18.6%, up 480 basis points from the beginning of 2008, the highest vacancy rate in all of Marin County, according to NAI BT Commercial. The average asking lease rate in San Rafael at the beginning of the year stood at $2.72 per square foot per month, fully serviced, up one penny from a year earlier. Of the 558,000 square feet of available space in the market, approximately 30% of it was sublease space.
San Rafael is part of a northern Marin County market that also includes the City of Novato, where Local NAI broker Trevor Buck tells GlobeSt.com the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. and Greenpoint Mortgage have vacated some 275,000 square feet in recent months. Office vacancy in the 3.2-million-square-foot Novato submarket grew 340 basis points to 15.9% in 2008, while its average asking rate decreased two pennies to $2.23.
Among other properties Buck is currently marketing San Rafael Corporate Center, which currently includes two existing buildings (750 Linardo and 781 Lincoln) and two speculative buildings (74,000 square feet and 84,000 square feet) that are under construction. Buck tells GlobeSt.com that local tenants have been trading out of lesser quality space into more traditional class A properties as rents have come down.
"Everyone is still looking for a deal but they are willing to pay a little more to move up," he says. "There's good activity in the quality product."
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