Southeastern Wisconsin’s struggling office market got the year off to a good start posting 85,722 square feet of positive absorption, after the market had negative absorption of nearly 150,000 square feet in the foruth quarter of 2012, according to the first quarter market report by Xceligent and the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW).
The largest change in absorption was from Waterstone Mortgage signed a lease to move its Pewaukee office from a 27,500-square-foot space on Quail Court to a 40,000-square-foot space on Paul Road.
The region’s office space vacancy rate fell from 20.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 20.7 percent in the first quarter of 2013.
Class A office properties in the region outperformed the overall market with first quarter absorption of 77,645 square feet of space. The region’s class A office space vacancy rate fell from 15.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 14.6 percent in the first quarter of 2013.
The class B market absorbed 5,176 square feet of space and now has a vacancy rate of 25.9 percent.
The class C market absorbed 2,901 square feet of space and now has a vacancy rate of 18.8 percent.
