Office vacancy rates drop

Salt Lake County's office and industrial property market kept tightening during this year's first quarter, according to a report released Friday by Commerce CRG.

The county's office vacancy rate in the three months ended March 31 — excluding sublease space — fell to 10.81 percent, down from 14.10 percent during the first quarter of 2004, according to the Salt Lake-based brokerage firm.

The first quarter's vacancy rate, however, remained the same as the fourth quarter 2005 rate of 10.81 percent.

Roughly 2.9 million square feet of office space in Salt Lake County was available at the end of this year's first quarter. About 63 percent of that space was in suburban Salt Lake County, areas outside of 1300 South to 1000 North and 700 West to 1300 East, according to the Commerce CRG report.

Average asking lease rates for office space across the valley ranged from $16.50 a square foot to $28 on the high side.

Significant lease transactions in the quarter included nearly 15,000 square feet of space leased by SkyWest Airlines in downtown Salt Lake City. Silicon Valley Bank leased more than 26,000 square feet of space at Ninigret Park, the report said.

Stevens-Henager College and Envirocare of Utah completed construction on 128,000 square feet of combined office space in the Salt Lake market. The report noted that at least 600,000 square feet of office space will be added to the market during the balance of 2006.

First quarter 2006 industrial space vacancies, which include warehousing, manufacturing and distribution businesses, fell to 7.14 percent from 7.68 percent in the same period of 2005.

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com