Tenants Forced to Sonoma Co. For Space

Sonoma County’s office vacancy rate, 5.3% at mid-year, was greater than other counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, reports Keegan & Coppin/Oncor International, in its first ever analysis of the Sonoma County office market, previously thought too small for comment.

Telecommunications companies are the predominant tenants in the corridor from San Rafael to Rohnert Park, according to the report. Indeed, so many have located there that area brokers are calling the area “Telecom Valley.”

The increased interest by tenants also is illustrated by a rash of new projects in the Airport Business Park area between Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. The development has pushed vacancies in that submarket to 10.3 percent.

Sonoma County had 484,400 square feet of vacant space and another 448,000 square feet planned or in construction at mid-year, according to the report. On the up side, the report says the vacancy rate will drop fairly fast due to demand.

The vacancy rate in other submarkets ranges from 3.6 percent in Petaluma to 5.7 percent in Rohnert Park itself. In regard to the 448,000 square feet of future space, 302,100 square feet of that is in Petaluma.