The fiscal cliff? Superstorm Sandy? The seemingly never-ending presidential election?
None of these big stories fazed the office market in Omaha, according to the winter 2013 office report from Omaha’s Investors Realty.
According to the company’s report, the vacancy rate in Omaha’s office sector did rise, ever so slightly, as 2012 moved from January to December. But the increase was marginal. During the year, the rate rose from 13.7 percent to 13.9 percnt.
At the same time, Omaha’s office market saw positive absorption of 273,651 square feet. And the overall size of the city’s office market increased, largely because of the construction of the corporate headquarters of CSG and Northstar Financial and the announcement of more than 340,000 square feet of headquarters buildings for three additional Omaha businesses.
Average asking rents jumped, too, increasing throughout the year by 17 cents a square feet.
Of course, this is still a challenging economy, and a challenging office market. This means that the Investors Realty report contains some down notes. During 2012, the Omaha market saw 21 fewer office tranactions than it did the year before. And the overall square footage leased in this sector dropped by 14,000 square feet from 2011.
Still, Omaha remains one of the steadiest commercial real estate markets in the Midwest, whether you’re looking at office, retail or industrial. This report from Investors Realty only reaffirms this.
