Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce Reports Strong Salt Lake City Office, Retail and Investment Segments in Q3 2013

SALT LAKE CITY, UT--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2013) - Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce recently released its most recent Marketbeat Snapshot reports for Salt Lake City detailing the state of the market for Q3 2013. The reports show the state of Office, Retail, Industrial and Investment commercial real estate market segments.

The Salt Lake City market has seen strength throughout Q3 of 2013. Although Industrial has slowed, the overall strength of the market has increased on a year-over-year basis. Office vacancy rates have decreased by a significant amount and overall effective rates have remained strong or increased across market segments.

"In terms of commercial real estate investment, Utah is on pace to break the $1 billion mark for the first time since 2007," said Michael M. Lawson, president and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce. "We're seeing a flood of institutional money coming into the state, driving larger and higher quality transactions."

Salt Lake City Office Snapshot

The Office market has shown strength throughout Q3 with vacancy rates trending downward at a healthy rate. The Salt Lake City Office market has been able to successfully absorb space while seeing multiple construction projects emerge. Direct asking rates dipped slightly by 1.7% from the same quarter in 2012 however concessions such as free rent have decreased causing effective rents for landlords to increase.

Salt Lake City Industrial Snapshot

The Salt Lake City Industrial Market saw some cooling during Q3 as new construction outpaced absorption contributing to a slight uptick of 0.3 percentage points (pps) compared to the prior quarter. Although Q3 leasing and user activity softened to the lowest level over the past year, overall activity remained very strong on a year-over-year basis with activity hitting 4.4 million square feet (msf), outpacing the same period in 2012.

Salt Lake City Retail Snapshot

The Retail market has seen positive growth in the past year with decreasing vacancy rates and increasing average asking rental rates. Salt Lake City market vacancy rates dropped by 1.5 pps on a year-over-year basis, ending Q3 at 7.7%. Average asking rental rates increased slightly and concessions continue to be phased out, especially in anchored shopping centers. In Q4 and throughout 2014 renovation and expansion projects should continue to strengthen the market.

Utah Investment Snapshot

The total volume of investment dollars transacted within Utah has increased over the past year, even as the total number of transactions has decreased, as a result of more high valued assets being traded. Utah is on track to break the $1 billion mark for the first time since 2007 as Q3 continued the investment trend that was seen over the first half of the year. Office sales have performed very well in Q3, comprising 62% of the total transactions.

The full reports for each of these markets, as well as historical reports are available for download at: http://www.comre.com/research.cfm

About Cushman & Wakefield |Commerce

Cushman & Wakefield |Commerce, an independently owned and operated member of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance, has been the leading provider of real estate brokerage services for more than 30 years. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, the firm has offices throughout Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Washington. It offers consulting, brokerage, tenant and landlord representation, property and facilities management, and valuation services to corporations, institutions and investors throughout the Intermountain West and Pacific Northwest. For more information, and for property listings, broker information, market category reports and more visit www.comre.com.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield is the world's largest privately‐held commercial real estate services firm. The company advises and represents clients on all aspects of property occupancy and investment, and has established a preeminent position in the world's major markets, as evidenced by its frequent involvement in many of the most significant property leases, sales and assignments. Founded in 1917 it has 243 offices in 60 countries and more than 14,000 employees. It offers a complete range of services for all property types, including leasing, sales and acquisitions, equity, debt and structured finance, corporate finance and investment banking, corporate services, property management, facilities management, project management, consulting and appraisal. The firm has more than $4 billion in assets under management through its wholly‐owned subsidiary Cushman & Wakefield Investors. A recognized leader in local and global real estate research, the firm publishes its market information and studies online at www.cushmanwakefield.com/knowledge.