As 2009 drew to a close office space vacancy rates stood at a staggering 20% in Silicon Valley, the Californian region synonymous with high-tech and internet companies.
This represents the worst rental market in the region for 15 years and has been attributed to large-scale redundancies over the last 12 months. Stephen Levy, speaking on behalf of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, said: “We were adding space right before we lost some 50,000-60,000 jobs.” (more…)
The US commercial property market continues to attract foreign investors as analysts predict that property values will appreciate in the coming years.
In a survey conducted by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), the US was the preferred national destination for investors. Meanwhile 
Washington and New York were second and third respectively in the pole of which cities investors would be placing their money in this year, losing out to London which was on top. (more…)
Austin, Texas has come top of the pile in a national study by business website Portfolio.com and American City Business Journals.
The report assesses small business vitality in 100 metropolitan areas across 50 states and takes into account a variety of factors including small business growth, employment and population. (more…)
A few years ago, central city office space was very costly and, more often than not, too expensive for small businesses to afford.
The business slump has changed all that. Occupied office space in most major cities are now at all time low. Most office space is being leased at a cheap rate and some office space is even being leased for a limited time for free in a bid to reduce office space vacancy rates. Across the country, office rents have tumbled as the current economic climate has seen office space vacancies in cities from New York to Miami soar to a 5 year high. (more…)
In Edmonton the office space market is still being squeezed as companies cut the amount of workspace they need. However compared to other Canadian cities, the city is still doing reasonably well. Although vacancies are rising and rents are falling, the 7% downtown vacancy rate is envied not only by other Canadian cities, but also many major US cities. To put things in perspective, the US office vacancy rate is around 16.5%.
(more…)
What’s the first thing you do after raising another $100 million for your company? Get some sweet new digs, of course. Twitter is taking advantage of its latest round of cash flow by mobbing into a Folsom st. office in San Francisco currently occupied by AOL-owned social network, Bebo.
Bebo itself will be moving to a lower floor in the same building “to take up a more appropriate size space in the same building,” according to SFGate. Twitter current has 30 employees, a number it is getting set to double with new engineers, office staff, and customer support employees.
Micro blogging phenomenon Twitter are to move into a new office. They will move to Folsom Street in San Francisco to a building currently owned by Bebo. Twitter have recently been given another $100 million of cash injection from their financial backers. The site has yet to come up with an advertising model as they want to continue to increase the user base, and not antagonize current members.
(more…)
In the US 263,000 jobs were lost in September, which was higher than experts had been predicting. The unemployment rate was the highest since 1983, upto of 9.8% from August’s figure of 9.7%. The number of people in work in the US has fallen every month for the last 21 months.
(more…)
Commercial property rents are falling globally despite incentives and discounts, according to a recent survey. Even with indications that the global economy maybe slowly improving and property prices stabilizing, price falls were still reported in the Global Property Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
(more…)
The office market in Lee County has seen falling rents this year despite occupancy levels rising slowly. However, local agents are pleased that the vacancy rates have stabilized. In an indicative sign of the current situation, agents are nowadays “pleased” just by the mere fact that the market is not getting any worse. Gone are the days of predicting exponential growth, these days agents are happy if they can keep their heads above water.
(more…)
Two of the biggest tenants of North Dallas are about to move office, heaping further pressure on the already sluggish office market. Homebuilder Centex will stop nearly all of it’s operations at it’s two buildings on McKinnon Street. As well as this, Dean Foods Co. is moving from McKinney Avenue to the Cityplace Center on North Central Expressway.
The Uptown-Turtle Creek area has around 2 million square feet of empty office space, and it does not include work in progress. The vacancy rate is already 20%, well above the US national average. Local real estate professionals are relaxed though as they believe the area will attract new tenants in the near future, especially from the financial sector. Certain areas are seeing asking rents of $32 per sq foot, although much of this is based on brand new stock shoring up prices.
(more…)
