Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q1 2016. Here is a short summary:

  • General leasing activity improved significantly outside of the Seattle and Bellevue central business districts (CBDs), which had led the region coming out of the recession.
  • Regional first quarter absorption was just over 670,000 s.f., a bit off the 2015 pace, but well above the previous ten years; this left the regional vacancy at 7.87%.
  • Rental rates continue to move up at a steady but modest rate,


Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q1 2016

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q2 2014. As the report notes, so far in 2014, the only major surprise in the office market was Boeing expanding into over 600,000 s.f. of space in Bothell and the I-90 Corridor, single-handedly dropping the vacancy rates in those submarkets by 300-400 basis points (bps) each. The rest of the market trends are holding steady; leasing activity is improving across the region and the lack of large contiguous spaces in the
Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q2 2014

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q1 2014. As the report notes, the first quarter of 2014 marks the beginning of the fifth year of the office market recovery from the great recession that crash landed in 2009. Occupancy continues to inch upward; steadily in downtown Seattle and downtown Bellevue, less consistently in the secondary markets. Job growth has not recovered outside of the core markets and with office space tending to follow employment growth, slow and calculated absorption on a regional basis is what Jason’s firm is forecasting.
Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q1 2014

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q3 2012. As the report notes, compared with the first half of the year the Seattle office market was very quiet in Q3, with the main difference between Q3 and Q2 that there were no new Amazon lease commencements. Not to say Amazon is the only driver in the local office market recovery, but it does point out just how big a role they have played, accounting for about half of the total net

Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q3 2012

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q2 2012. As the report notes, the Puget Sound office market during the first half of 2012 was active on several fronts. Leasing was strong in both Seattle and Bellevue central business districts (CBD), rental rates showed some modest gains in the core markets, and the dollar amount of this year’s sales activity skyrocketed.

New leasing activity was led by ecommerce companies and was focused on newer buildings in specific neighborhoods. It was in

Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q2 2012

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle office real estate market review for Q4 2011. As the report notes, 2011 showed highly stratified results. Class A space saw strong absorption, a high level of investment activity and even some firming of rental rates at the end of the year. The rest of the market was flat at best, although value-added investors showed more interest in the last half of the year, perhaps a harbinger of pending improvement in that end of the market. This split performance mirrors

Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q4 2011

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle office real estate market review for Q3 2011. As the report notes, the regional vacancy rate decreased in Q3 2011 and is expected to decrease again in Q4 2011 and, barring a deep double-dip, rental rates may have bottomed out across the region, with some firming in a few specific class/location combinations.Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q3 2011

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, here is an interesting report that analyzes the last two complete Seattle and Eastside commercial real estate cycles going back to 2000 and includes the “causes and effects” of the events that precipitated each down cycle, as well as the actions that ultimately assisted in the recovery of these markets. I spoke with Jason about how he is using this research to help his current client base. Like similar challenges that have multiple moving parts, there is not one silver bullet solution –
Continue Reading Seattle and Eastside Office Vacancy and Employment Report