Commercial vacancy rates in my city hit 22% and I had no idea it was that bad

Was digging through some city planning data from last quarter and found out our downtown office vacancy rate is 22%. That's almost a quarter of all office space sitting empty. Has anyone else seen numbers this high in your market?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas_price834d ago

Walk into any leasing agent's office (they're all desperate these days) and ask for the "shadow space" numbers. Those are the offices companies are paying for but aren't using. That 22% is probably closer to 30% when you factor that in. Start looking at conversion possibilities for your market right now. Residential lofts or mixed use stuff is the only way some of these buildings are going to stay alive. Check what your city's zoning laws look like for adaptive reuse projects before the landlords start offering insane deals on long term leases.

riverknight3d agoMost Upvoted

Throw that shadow space number in front of any landlord right now and watch them sweat. @lucas_price83 is dead on about zoning laws being the real key, a lot of cities are dragging their feet on approvals while buildings sit empty. My buddy in Denver just got an insane deal on a long term lease because the owner knew conversion was the only way out. Start looking at what the city actually allows before you bother talking to agents, it'll save you a ton of time.