Office vacancies are declining in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Broward County’s first-quarter vacancy rate fell to its lowest level since 2009, according to a report from the CBRE firm.
Vacancies dipped to 16.3 percent from 18 percent a year earlier, CBRE said. The overall average rental rate grew to $16.46 a square foot from $16.34 in the first quarter of 2013.
In Palm Beach County, vacancies dropped to 23.6 percent from 24.5 percent a year earlier, CBRE said. The overall average rental rate dipped to $17.03 a square foot from $17.08 in the first quarter of 2013.
“Activity in the Palm Beach County market has shown steady but slow improvement coming out of the recessionary period,” CBRE said.
Many tenants are focused on efficiency and smaller spaces, but a dearth of new office construction in recent years will help boost occupancy and rental rates in the years ahead, according to the report.
Rick Bonvie, a commercial real estate agent who focuses on eastern Fort Lauderdale, said Broward’s office market was extremely slow over the past two years. But he said activity has intensified in recent months.
During the Great Recession, landlords were unwilling to spend money to improve their properties, but now they are investing to attract tenants, Bonvie said.
“It’s been a night-and-day resurgence,” he said. “The confidence level has returned.”
Miami-Dade and Broward counties have been quicker to recover from the economic downturn than Palm Beach County, said Jonathan Kingsley, an executive with the JLL firm in South Florida.
“But I think Palm Beach County will have that next wave [of growth] because we started to see some good signs in 2013,” Kingsley said.
Among the first-quarter office market highlights cited by CBRE in Broward: Stemtech International announced a move from California to Pembroke Pines that will bring 90 jobs, and the Las Olas Centre, a two-building “Class A” complex at 350 and 450 Las Olas Blvd., sold for $204 million.
Among the highlights in Palm Beach County: Tyco Integrated Security leased more than 72,000 square feet at Boca Corporate Center and Campus, and Newsmax Media leased about 50,000 square feet at 750 Park of Commerce Blvd. in Boca Raton.
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