Office Real Estate Review: Total vacancy decreased slightly from 15.9% to 15.8% and Multi-tenant vacancy declined from 20.7% to 20.6% in July. Total vacancy has remained virtually unchanged over the past 10 months. Completed construction of the 132,000 SF Portico office tower at Franklin & Eagle in Meridian has boosted absorption. A combined 110,000 SF is being occupied by two tenants, Scentsy and ESI Construction. Office absorption is now positive at 58,000 SF year-to-date. Meridian’s absorption alone is 147,000 SF. Several submarkets are still facing negative absorption. West Boise (-51,000 SF) has seen its vacancy rate climb to 21.5%, its highest recorded level. A few properties in this submarket have recently been taken back by lenders.

Industrial Real Estate Review:  Industrial vacancy remained flat at 11.9% in July. An 8,000 SF building on Lanark Street in Meridian sold and Dome Construction leased nearly 6,000 SF in Meridian, vacating space in West Boise. Meridian vacancy (6.8%) is now at its lowest level since mid-2009 and has the strongest absorption year-to-date (70,000 SF). West Boise has seen over 180,000 SF of negative absorption. Overall net absorption remains negative (-154,000 SF). Vacancy continues to decline in Nampa (17.7%) but is on the rise in the Airport submarket (9.0%) and in Caldwell (17.6%), where a signage company vacated a 6,000 SF building. Despite the recent rise in vacancy, Caldwell still has positive absorption of 61,000 SF year-to-date.

Retail Real Estate Review: Total vacancy decreased from 13.5% to 13.3% in July, marking the fourth consecutive month it has declined. Vacancy is now at its lowest level in 2010. Unanchored vacancy also has seen significant improvement this year and decreased from 23.1% to 22.5% in July. Submarkets with declining vacancy rates include Southwest (11.3%), Meridian (7.4%), and Caldwell (5.1%). The Retail market has seen over 100,000 SF of positive absorption in the past four months. Despite the positive trends, it is still not enough to offset over 200,000 SF of negative absorption in the 1st Quarter. Most negative absorption has occurred in Downtown (-108,000 SF) and Nampa (-67,000 SF), while Meridian has seen the strongest absorption (90,000 SF).

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