Metro Denver’s office market is expected to end 2007 strongly, but with lingering questions for the new year.
Those questions relate to what the global capital markets do, and whether local office space is as tight as it needs to be to keep the office market healthy, with all the new construction going on.
“It should take another three to six months to get more clarity about the capital markets,” said Jeanine Hughes Murphy, associate director and office broker at commercial real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield of Colorado Inc. of Denver. “By the end of the second quarter of 2008, we’ll feel more shakeout.”
For the overall metro-area office market, Cushman & Wakefield predicts a 2007 vacancy rate of 13.1 percent, which is tighter than 2006’s year-end 15.1 percent. The company’s preliminary data show office rents averaging $20.23 per square foot market wide for the year, up from $18.70 last year.
