The Milwaukee area office market gained strength in the third quarter with positive net absorption of 250,472 square feet of office space, which pushed the office space vacancy rate for the market down to 10.8 percent, according to a report by CoStar Group Inc.
The Milwaukee office market had a 11.1 percent vacancy rate in the second quarter, a 11.3 percent vacancy rate in the first quarter and a 11.6 percent vacancy rate in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to CoStar Group.
According to CoStar Group, tenants moving into large blocks of space this year have included: Kohl’s Department Stores moving into 79,494 square feet of space at Liberty II in Milwaukee, Pinstripe Inc. moving into 57,467 square feet at 200 Executive Dr. in Brookfield, and Marshall & Swift/Boeckh moving into 38,243 square feet of space at 10001 W. Innovation Dr., Wauwatosa.
Tenants moving out of large blocks of space this year, according to CoStar, have included: AECOM moving out of 40,000 square feet at the German English Academy Building and Ward Adhesives moving out of 22,635 square feet of space at N27 W23539 Paul Road.
The downtown Milwaukee central business district had positive net absorption of 40,021 square feet of space in the third quarter. The CBD office market had 18,713 square feet of positive absorption in the second quarter, negative absorption of 66,805 square feet in the first quarter and negative absorption of 15,960 square feet in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to CoStar.
The downtown Milwaukee office space vacancy rate improved to 12.1 percent in the third quarter, down from 12.3 percent in the second quarter, 13.1 percent in the first quarter and 13.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to CoStar.
The office space vacancy rate in the suburbs was 10.4 percent in the third quarter, down from 10.8 percent in the second quarter, 10.8 percent in the first quarter and 11.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to CoStar.