Around the Washington Area
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Howard County
The office vacancy rate in Howard County increased to 11.5 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 9.5 percent at the same time last year, according to CoStar Group Inc., in part because more property came on the market but had not yet been leased.
"There have been new deliveries in various stages of construction, and it's skewing the numbers," said Owen J. Rouse Jr., a director at Manekin LLC, a real estate company in Columbia. "It's not an indictment of the market's health. It's a healthy place."
For instance, Abrams Development Group Inc. of Columbia has several buildings under construction at the 630-acre Columbia Gateway Business Park, the county's largest office park. Corporate Office Properties Trust, a real estate investment trust in Columbia, also has a building underway there.
Corporate Office purchased a 61,023-square-foot single-story office building at that business park in December for $9.2 million dollars. The company now owns about two dozen buildings that account for about half the office space at Columbia Gateway, said Randall M. Griffin, the company's president and chief executive.
Asking rent in the county for the fourth quarter was $21.92, up from $21.06 a year earlier.
In the near future, the county's largest addition of office space outside of Columbia will be at Maple Lawn Farms, a 500-acre development near Fulton offering a mix of housing, retail, and office space. Developer Stewart Greenebaum expects to offer 2 million square feet of commercial space there within the decade.
-- Dina ElBoghdady
Montgomery County
The Montgomery County commercial real estate market appears to be on a roll, with average fourth-quarter rents in 2005 rising to $26.15 from $25.69 during the same period in 2004. The vacancy rate dropped to 9.1 percent from 10.8 percent the year before.
More than 300,000 square feet was absorbed during the quarter.
Brokers say the improving numbers reflect the strong demand -- and low vacancy rates -- in Silver Spring and Bethesda, where there's been a surge of activity over the past year or so.
