“It was meager.”
That’s how longtime broker John DeGrinis, senior vice president of Colliers International, described 2008’s final act in Ventura County.
Office vacancy was 19.3 percent at year’s end, up from 16.8 percent in the third quarter and 11.7 percent in 2007, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
Camarillo continued to be the softest market, charting a whopping 31 percent vacancy rate in the final period, up sharply from 23.7 percent the prior quarter. A handful of small leases was inked there, but it wasn’t enough to make up for a string of put-backs by a host of businesses that downsized, closed or were purchased including lender Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America.
Ventura was the most stable market with a 15.4 percent vacancy rate in the fourth quarter, only slightly higher than the 14.5 percent in the previous period and 10.9 percent compared with a year earlier.
In an attempt to lure tenants, “concession packages such as rental abatement and build-to-suits began to surface,” said John La Spada, senior associate for CB Richard Ellis.
The sale market also was slow as sellers continued to demand too high a price, artificially suppressing the income (or cap rate) a building produces. “Buyers are holding out till they can buy at a number that makes sense to them and that’s that,” noted DeGrinis.
He added that the office market will likely continue to soften “given the prospect of further layoffs and a changing paradigm less office space per employee.”
Office Market At a Glance
Inventory: 13.1 million square feet
Under Construction: 909,000 square feet
Class A Asking Rents: $2.02
MAIN EVENTS
– Eureka-based Security National Properties Funding II sold the 113,346-square-foot Ventura Professional Center at 5700, 5720 and 5740 Ralston St. in Ventura to Newport Beach-based CT Realty Corp. for $11.8 million. CT will spend $1.2 million to upgrade the three-building, 5.6-acre property, which was 63 percent occupied at the time of sale.
– The Foundation Group sold the 51,500-square-foot Plaza 5051 office building at Mission Oaks Business Park in Camarillo to a private regional investor for an estimated $17.8 million, one of the largest sale transactions in 2008. The building, one of the newest Class A properties in the area, was 93 percent leased at time of sale.
– Law firm Procter Slaughter & Reagan LLP extended its 15,000-square-foot lease at the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust Building at 789 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura in a multiyear transaction valued at more than $1.9 million.
– Two medical/dental leases were recorded. Psychologists Rebeccah Schwartz and Terry Perkins renewed their 1,064-square-foot office lease at 123 Hodencamp Road in Thousand Oaks in a five-year deal. Dentist Dr. Paul Peterson leased 1,900 square feet of space at 400 W. Ventura Blvd. in Camarillo in a 10-year deal at $2 per square foot.
– Stratus Building Solutions, a building service and maintenance franchisor, took 1,903 square feet at 3355 Cochran St. in Simi Valley in a five-year deal at $1.70 per square foot.
– Aflac, the Columbus, Ga.-based insurer, leased 1,573 square feet at 333 N. Lantana St. in Camarillo for a regional office in a three-year, $1.55-per-square-foot deal.
