Last year, tenants once again gained the upper hand in lease negotiations – both in the office and industrial real estate markets.
The once supertight office market saw the supply of vacant space jump to the highest level in more than 12 years, according to researchers with Puget Sound Properties Inc.
Companies laid off workers and shut doors, coupled with the amount of newly completed construction, and more than 13 million square feet of office space was dumped onto the marketplace.
That meant landlords were motivated. They dropped asking rents and once again made leasing concessions, such as free rent, moving allowances and tenant improvements.
To that end, leases did continue.
Companies leased more than 8 million square feet of office space in the Puget Sound region during 2001 – a slightly higher amount of space than was leased in 2000.
Among the notable leases in 2001:
? Trendwest took a large chunk of the Attachmate sublease at Four Newport, signing for nearly 53,000 square feet.
? DigiMine Inc. leased 32,251 square feet in the Bellevue Place Office Building.
? Mutual Travel leased 25,500 square feet in the Mercer Yale Building in Seattle.
? Washington Mutual Bank leased 65,000 square feet at Sunset North Corporate Campus and another 62,967 square feet in the Financial Center building in Seattle.
? PATH committed to 73,000 square feet at the Ballard Lofts Office and Technology Center in Ballard.
? Boeing leased 157,540 square feet in the Opus Northwest’s Eastpointe project in Issaquah.
? Nordstrom leased 137,600 square feet in the Metropolitan Park Third Building developed by Benaroya Capital in Seattle.
? City University leased 104,000 square feet of Microsoft sublease space in the Ridgewood Corporate Center in Bellevue.
? Regus Business Centre Corp. leased 95,618 square feet in the 1100 Dexter Building in Seattle.
? The Institute for Systems Biology completed a 56,000 square foot transaction for the 1441 Lake Union Center project on North Lake Union in Seattle.
? Costco leased the entire 97,000-square-foot I-90 Lake Place II building.
Published by: Puget Sound Business Journal