The eastward migration of media and Internet companies continued in the second quarter, with businesses moving from the pricey Westside to cheaper digs closer to the central city along Wilshire Boulevard.

“In Miracle Mile, the rentals are going up quickly,” said Chris Runyen, associate vice president with Grubb & Ellis Co. “They are jumping from Miracle Mile to Wilshire Center and skipping Park Mile, because there is (no available office space) to take there.”

Park Mile, which stretches from the 4000 block to the 5000 block of Wilshire Boulevard, is almost 100 percent occupied, and there’s no room left in the area for new construction. The overall office vacancy rate in the Miracle/Park Mile district fell to 9 percent in the second quarter from 10.1 percent in the first, according to Grubb & Ellis.

Rosey Miller, a senior managing director at Julien J. Studley who has worked the Miracle/Park Mile district for 14 years, said vacancy rates in the area are at an all-time low while rents are commanding all-time highs.

“Historically, this area has filled up after the Westside has filled up,” Miller said. “What we have not seen is the vacancy rates in class-A buildings being as low as they are. This is something very new.”

The shortage of class-A space is having a big impact on rents. Class-A monthly asking rents went from an average of $2.10 per square foot in the first quarter to $2.37 in the second.

Newer buildings such as 5700 Wilshire, known as Wilshire Courtyard, are commanding rents of more than $3 per square foot, which Miller characterizes as “astronomical” for the area.

Most of the second-quarter leases along the stretch of Wilshire from the 4900 block to the 6300 block involved small amounts of space, because buildings such as 5900, 5670, 5700 and 6300 Wilshire are leased almost to capacity.

One of the bigger second-quarter deals was inked by Heyanita.com, which leased 14,031 square feet at 6100 Wilshire. More typical deals were similar to the 5,300 square feet leased at 4929 Wilshire by e-commerce firm Sylmark.

“I think any news in Miracle/Park Mile is somewhat limited,” Miller said.

One of the biggest purchases was the West Wilshire Center Office Complex by Brentwood based Lowe Enterprises Investment Management Inc., on behalf of a pension fund client, for about $45 million. The two-building complex consists of a 180,000-square-foot office building and a 55,000-square-foot medical building located at the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards. The complex is 93 percent leased.

Meanwhile, the Mid-Wilshire district (also known as Wilshire Center) remains a comparable bargain at $1.28 per square foot for class-A space. The pressure farther west still hasn’t been intense enough to significantly increase leasing activity or rental rates there. The second-quarter vacancy rate for the Mid-Wilshire submarket stood at 20.5 percent, unchanged from the first-quarter rate. The average asking rent was also unchanged from the first quarter, according to Grubb & Ellis.

There was a flurry of dot-com deals in the area, however. Yellowonline.com leased an additional 10,000 square feet at 3700 Wilshire Blvd., the second recent signing in Mid-Wilshire by an Internet firm (Click2Asia.com moved to the area in the first quarter).

Developers, meanwhile, are hoping to lure more. Developer F & F; Partners recently closed escrow on 3810 Wilshire Blvd., a 350,000-square-foot building that has been vacant for eight years. F & F; plans to completely overhaul the building to make it attractive for Internet and telecommunications firms.

“It was really mothballed because the office market has been so depressed,” said John Anthony, managing director at Charles Dunn Co. “And here they are repackaging it.”

Meanwhile, Dr. David Lee, the San Fernando Valley-based internist who has been cornering the Mid-Wilshire office market, paid $8.6 million to buy Wilshire Square at 3345 Wilshire Blvd. from the Hertz Investment Group during the quarter. The 12-story building was built in 1969.

Despite Mid-Wilshire’s lingering image problems, some brokers believe the area is more attractive than it was four years ago. It has seen an increase in renovation activity and generally has better parking availability than properties farther west.

“As far as telecommunications, the first choice is downtown,” Anthony said. “Now that that is tightening, they are turning to Wilshire Center.”