StarBulletin.com

Office vacancies high as the year winds up


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POSTED: Tuesday, January 05, 2010
               

     

 

DECLINING DEMAND
       

       

Honolulu's office market posted its highest vacancy rate in six years as layoffs, postponed hiring, business consolidations and closures put more office space into the market.

       

» Vacancy rate: 10.32 percent
        » Average asking rent: $2.74 to $3.99 per square foot per month
        » Lost occupancy: 184,780 square feet

       

Source: Colliers Monroe Friedlander

       

 

       

Vacancy rates for Honolulu's office market dropped in the fourth quarter; however, the improvement was not great enough to prevent the city's year-end vacancy rate from soaring to its highest level in six years or to keep the year-end gross asking rent from falling for the first time in seven years.

Though 17,683 square feet of office space was rented during the fourth quarter of 2009, Colliers Monroe Friedlander reported yesterday that by year-end Honolulu had lost 184,780 square feet of office occupancy to layoffs, postponed hiring, business consolidations and closures. For the year, Honolulu's vacancy rate rose by 172 basis points to 10.32 percent, and gross asking rent fell to $2.74 per square foot, a 3.45 percent decline from year-end 2008. Colliers forecast that job growth is expected to lag recovery and could cause Honolulu office vacancies to rise to 12 percent by 2011.