To be sure, tech-heavy West Los Angeles and a few submarkets inOrange County will be hit the hardest by the ongoing shakeout inthe Internet business. On the Westside alone, researchers at JulienJ. Studley say downsizing dot-coms have recently put more than500,000 sf of prime office space up for sublet, more than doublingthe submarket's record-low 3.4% vacancy factor reached earlier inthe year.

Still, Westside brokers aren't hitting the panic button. "Forevery dot-com that drops out of the market, there's a law firm orfinancial-services provider or other tenant waiting to take itsplace," Susan Goodman Byron, a vice president and broker intenant-rep specialist CRESA's West LA office, recently toldGlobeSt.com. Even more non-tech tenants may be willing to expand orrelocate on the pricey Westside if slackening demand from dot-comtenants ends the long string of double-digit rent increases thearea has seen over the past several years.

Brokers are split about the 2001 prospects for Downtown LA, thecounty's largest office market. Optimists say the CBD should see aninflux of new tenants over the next several months, in part becauseits 24% vacancy factor has resulted in rents that are between 20%and 40% lower than most other LA-area markets. But other brokerssay Downtown could go from bad to worse next year: "If rents insurrounding areas soften, it would make it a lot harder to justifyrenting Downtown," says one prominent broker who makes deals allover LA county. "You can make a case for renting in Downtown if itwill knock 40% off your rent payments. But if the savings would beonly 10% or 20%, you'll probably pick the Westside instead."