In Colorado and across the country, it’s a great sign when you see your local economy picking back up. With the past few years being difficult due to a recession in the United States, the good news is that many states are on the mend, and businesses are again starting to thrive.
News from April 10 in Colorado reports that Denver is picking up the pace and becoming a growing sector for office and industrial businesses in 2015. In 2014, the area has fallen behind its counterparts, but 2015 has turned around with more leases being taken out by companies and a lower vacancy rate by those already in the area.
Interestingly, metro Denver saw retail vacancy rates drop to 6.2 percent, which is the lowest they’ve been since 2006. Now, the lease cost has also increased to $16.73 per square foot, the most that has been able to be asked for since 2009. How much better is Denver really doing? Figures show that in the first quarter of 2014, 720 square feet of positive absorption took place in the commercial real estate market, which was very low. In 2015, that number rose to 234,355, which is on par with other areas.
However, despite growth overall, Aurora and west Denver both saw negative absorption, which means businesses left or vacated the area. Part of the reason for this is that Aurora has recovered slowly from the recession because of being a retail space for Class C businesses. Overall, the report shows good signs that the Denver metro area is going to continue to improve through the rest of the year.
Source: Denver Business Journal, “Colorado’s retail real estate picks up; office and industrial steady,” Molly Armbrister, April. 10, 2015
