Monday, October 29, 2007

Los Angeles' Office Market: Four Months Later

Towards the end of June, this blog picked up on a story regarding the future of the LA office market. The story, citing a UCLA study, indicated that demand was to outpace supply all the way through 2010. The trend is culminating quicker than anticipated:

"Today the numbers that commercial developers watch are encouraging them. Downtown vacancy rates are dropping and rents are heading upward, new statistics show. Landlords say they are bullish unless a swift downturn in the economy is ahead."


"As the office market tightens across much of Los Angeles County, according to recent statistics, some of the biggest downtown landlords are raising rents -- something almost unheard of three years ago."


"Rents downtown will go up 4% to 5% by the end of the year, predicted Bill Flaherty, a senior vice president at Maguire Properties, which owns the most downtown office space."


Ding Ding Ding...Is Maguire a buy? In June, the feeling was to hold off. Since then, Maguire Properties stock price has fallen 22.5 percent. A company that was trading at $34.82 on June 19th, closed trading today at $26.97.

The fence: it's still being used...Maguire: neither buy, nor sell. Check for updates.

No comments: