RHYS, a Stamford-based commercial real estate company with its headquarters on Atlantic Street, recently posted its Q1 2014 “Office Leasing Report: State of the Market.”
“The Fairfield County office market finally showed signs of palpable improvement during the first quarter of 2014,” RHYS said, citing data that found gains in both the Greenwich-Stamford corridor and along the county”™s east flank. The findings included:
Ӣ There was 11,347,664 square feet of available space in the market at the end of the quarter, a 2.3 percent decrease from the previous quarter and 4 percent less than at the end of Q1 2013.
Ӣ Despite decreasing by roughly 80,000 square feet in the first quarter, the 10,315,133 square feet of direct available space in the market remained 1.5 percent higher than a year ago.
Ӣ Sublet spaces experienced yet another quarter of high demand, with available sublet space dropping to its lowest level since Q4 2007.
Ӣ The 1,032,531 square feet of available sublet space was 15.5 percent less than after Q4 2013 and 37.6 percent less than at the end of Q1 2013.
Ӣ Available class A office space hit its lowest mark in the last two years, dropping by 3.8 percent during the quarter to finish at 6,741,739 square feet. Class B office space also continued to make positive strides, finishing at 4,605,925 square feet, slightly lower than at the end of the 2013 and 2.4 percent lower than a year ago.
The improvement in Fairfield County”™s available office space market was buoyed by strong activity within the southern submarket (Stamford and Greenwich), which accounts for 47.4 percent of the available space within the entire market, RHYS reported. Available space decreased by 5.4 percent quarter-to-quarter and by 5.5 percent year-over-year.
Within the central submarket (Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Westport and Wilton), which makes up 26.9 percent of Fairfield County”™s available space, available space increased by 1.2 percent since last quarter and by 2.4 percent since a year ago.
Available space within the eastern submarket (Bridgeport, Fairfield, Shelton, Stratford and Trumbull), which holds 13.9 percent of the total available space in the market, saw the strongest year-over-year improvement, with 8.8 percent less space available than a year ago.
The northern submarket (Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, Newtown and Ridgefield) had 1.7 percent more space available than at the end of the previous quarter, but remained 5.4 percent lower than at the end of the last year”™s first quarter.
The overall vacancy rate for office space in Fairfield County finished the quarter at 17.1 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous quarter”™s rate and 0.3 percentage points higher than the prior year”™s rate.
The vacancy rate for class A office space increased slightly quarter-to-quarter but was 0.4 percent lower year-over-year, finishing the quarter at 16.9 percent. The 17.2 percent rate for class B office space experienced the opposite trend, ending 0.3 percent lower than the previous quarter but 1.3 percent higher than Q1 2013.
