Q1 Office Market Garners Mixed Reviews

ORANGE COUNTY-The county’s ofice market showed some signs of stabilization during the first quarter, but it still posted significant negative net absorption and overall remains weak. Those are some of the conclusions in reports on first-quarter activity in the county from Voit Commercial Real Estate Services, Delta Associates and Colliers International.

“We are beginning to see signs of overall stabilization and improvement,” in the county’s office market, says Jerry Holdner, vice president of market research for Voit. Holdner tells GlobeSt.com that the most promising trend is that the overall total of direct and sublease space available in the county remained at 23.75% in the first quarter, the same as in the fourth quarter.

Much of that 23.75% is the same space this quarter as last―it was sublease space and has now gone back to landlords as direct space. Holdner says that he’s hopeful that the flattening in the amount of available space on the market is a sign that the market has bottomed out, although that remains to be seen.