Denver retail market vacancy drops to 4.8% in Q1 2016

Denver retail market vacancy drops to 4.8% in first quarter 2016, down 0.2% from previous quarter. Net absorption for the quarter came in at 676,082 square feet, while sublease space increased slightly by 52.671 square feet. The net absorption of 676,082 square feet in the first quarter was down slightly from the fourth quarter 2015 where net absorption was 849,399 square feet. However, both first quarter 2016 and fourth quarter 2015 were significantly higher than third quarter 2015 at 260,443 square feet and second quarter at 106,023 square feet respectively.

Denver retail market vacancy did see an overall decrease in the vacancy rate over the past four quarters with the rate going from 5.2% in the second quarter 2015, to 5.1% at the end of the third quarter 2015, and 5.0% at the end of the fourth quarter 2015.

Sublease space for the Denver market trended down over the past four quarters. At the end of the second quarter 2015, there were 392,040 square feet of vacant sublease space. Currently, there are 338,307 square feet of vacant space.

Retail rates also inched up in the first quarter 2016 to $15.70 per square foot per year. That compares to $15.57 per square foot in the fourth quarter 2015, and $15.43 per square foot at the end of second quarter 2015. This represents a 0.8% increase in rental rates in the current quarter, and a 1.72% increase from four quarter ago.

During the first quarter 2016, 36 buildings totaling 394,572 square feet were completed in the Denver retail market. Over the past four quarters, a total of 1,556,810 square feet of retail space has been built in Denver, while another 1,349,633 square feet of retail space under construction at the end of the first quarter 2016. The total inventory in the Denver market area reached 194,082,681 square feet in 14,544 buildings and 1503 centers as of the end of the first quarter 2016.

Notably, vacancy rates for Colorado Blvd and Cherry Creek market stood at 2.2% while average quoted rates were $28.27 per square foot. Downtown vacancy rates stood at 3.9% while quoted rates were $24.91 per square foot.