The southeastern Wisconsin office real estate market is finally showing signs of improvement after years of high vacancy, according to the Xceligent and Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW) second quarter report.
The region’s office market absorbed 202,227 square feet of space during the second quarter and the vacancy rate fell from 19.98 percent in the first quarter to 19.53 percent in the second quarter.
The region’s office market has posted solid gains in two of the last three quarters. The region had negative net absorption of 29,115 square feet during the first quarter, but had positive net absorption of 119,462 square feet during the fourth quarter of 2011.
The class A office market is in much better shape that the class B market. The class A office market in the region has a 15.0 percent vacancy rate and absorbed 95,767 square feet of space in the second quarter. The class B market has a 25 percent vacancy rate and absorbed 87,414 square feet of space.
In the downtown Milwaukee east submarket office space vacancy rate is at 14.6 percent, the class A vacancy rate is at 8.9 percent and the class B vacancy rate is at 23.4 percent.
The downtown west submarket, the office space vacancy rate is at 31.2 percent.
