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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Office space in Salt Lake City's central business district has gotten harder to come by.
The booming economy in the Salt Lake area and growth along the Wasatch Front has put a premium on the top-of-the-line buildings and suites in renovated buildings, as expanding businesses are snatching up vacancies there.
The vacancy rate for quality office space in the business district has fallen to under 2 percent, the lowest it's been in the past 15 years, said Mike Richmond, an associate broker for Salt Lake City-based commercial real estate firm Commerce CRG.
For three months ending in June 30 in Salt Lake County, the rate fell to 10.92 percent, down from 13.72 percent in the second quarter of 2005, according to a Commerce CRG report released Wednesday.
Richmond said companies are competing for a space even while it's being occupied by another business.
"That is definitely a trend that we have not seen in a long time, where companies are now actually having to plan well in advance of their need just to tie up space," he said.
Some relief could come when Fidelity is expected to move into an eight-story office tower, encompassing 230,000 square feet of space, at The Gateway shopping center west of the Delta Center.
Fidelity will leave nearly 200,000 square feet in two other downtown buildings when it moves to Gateway in mid-2007, said Paul Anderson of Salt Lake City real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis.
But the dwindling real estate has already forced companies to look at alternatives, Richmond said, including building new offices. A 750,000 square-foot building is under construction by companies including CompHealth, Myriad Genetics, Southern Nevada University and Spillman Technologies.
"You get these corporations that want space available right away, and if it's not available then we get a check mark against us," Richmond said. "I know a few instances where we've lost corporations to other cities that have maybe had more space available."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
