Thrown Out of Business

Wenger needed to evict.

It took four hours for the crew to haul Robey's table saws, sanders, jigs and other woodworking equipment to the curb. A craftsman's tools, accumulated over a lifetime. When it was finished, Wenger locked the door of his now-empty space.

Once Wenger locked the shop, sheriff's deputies left. Then a flood of passersby began to stop and scavenge through the contents of the dead man's shop, throwing tools, furniture and half-finished projects into their cars and trucks, then driving off.

A relative stood and watched. He declined to give his name.

"There were just a few things I wanted to try to get," he said aloud. He shook his head as the contents of the business disappeared before his eyes. "Bad memories."

Vacancies in the Washington region's commercial real estate market are up, brokers say, though not nearly as much as in other hard-hit markets such as Las Vegas and southern Florida.

So far this year, 4.5 million square feet of new commercial office space in the Washington area has been completed but vacancy rates are on the rise, according to data compiled by Cushman & Wakefield. Ten percent less office space was leased throughout the Washington region in the second quarter of 2008, and most was composed of renewals, according to Jones Lang Lasalle, a property management company. In the Maryland suburbs, more space was given up by companies than leased, according to Cushman & Wakefield research.

Gary Michael, president of NAI the Michael Cos. and Michael Management, two longtime Washington area commercial real estate firms, said he expects to see more small businesses having difficulties, struggling to cover their overheads.

"If you're a consumer and you're not going out to dinner much, I think that small businesses are less capitalized and less able to handle it," Michael said. "It's a lot tougher for the smaller guys to borrow money if they need it to cover short-term cash flow hiccups. A lot of people used to rely on their homes as a source of borrowing and that has dried up."

At the recent eviction of the ReMax office, moving crews had been on the job for several hours before anyone from the company shows up. The owner, who identifies herself as an accountant, says that it was a paperwork mix-up; a misunderstanding between the landlord's office and the business about their move-out date. She does not want to talk about it and does not return calls later.

A real estate salesman arrives and sizes up the situation. People in cars, trucks and SUVs have stopped by the side of the road and are carting off furniture, equipment and office supplies.

He tries to make the best of a bad situation, helping the owner recoup some of her losses. Working through the growing crowd of people, he tells them that it's $5 for a file cabinet, $10 for a desk, $50 for a copy machines. On and on.