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Fairfield Market Posts Record Results
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Business New Haven
2/19/2001
By: BNH
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The Fairfield County office market posted record results in 2000, according to Insignia and Albert B. Ashforth Inc. But it is questionable if the trend can continue.
Albert B. Ashforth reported that the Class A office vacancy rate rose by 1.3 percent at the end of 2000, reversing a steady decline that began more than a year before. But the company doesn't expect the vacancy rate bump to become a trend.
Jeffrey H. Gage, senior vice president of the company, attributed the rise in the vacancy to brief aberrations in the office market. He credits the demise of dot.com companies in Fairfield as temporarily creating a few vacancies.
The Insignia/ESG Annual Commercial Market Report says that despite a slowdown in leasing in the fourth quarter of 2000, “The Fairfield County office market finished 2000 with record results in leasing and absorption, while posting the lowest countywide availability rate in recent history.”
Insignia reports that overall leasing velocity in the county increased more than 18 percent from the previous year to 5.2 million square feet, while net absorption saw a turnaround from 1999's negative 243,640 square feet to a positive 1.5 million square feet. The Insignia/ESG Annual Commercial Market Report says that “Fairfield's availability rate dropped nearly 2.5 percentage points to 9.1 percent - its lowest level in recent memory.” The company said that the average asking rent rose $4.50 per square foot to $29.36 by the end of December.
Albert Ashforth reports that rental prices averaged $32.18 per square foot during the fourth quarter of 2000, up $3.74 from the previous quarter's $28.44 average and up $5.38 from the $26.80 average at the end of 1999. The vacancy rate for Class A office space rose to 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 5.2 percent in the third quarter. The company points out that the figure is still below the 8.0 percent vacancy rate that existed in for Class A offices in Fairfield County in the fourth quarter of 1999.
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