Denver commercial real estate showing a healthy start in 2013….

Denver office space submarket direct vacancy rate stood at 12.12% and asking rates at $21.91 per square foot for the Denver metro area. In April, 900,942 square feet was absorbed and lease rates were up 9 cents month over month. Denver’s central business district was one of the strongest submarkets with a vacancy rate of 11.25% and average asking lease of $28.51 which was a .51 increase in just one month.

Denver retail space submarket also continued to improve with 594,555 square feet of positive absorption in April which resulted in a direct vacancy rate of 6.05%, but rates remained flat month over month. The strongest submarket was the Colorado Boulevard – Cherry Creek with a vacancy rate of 2.38% and average asking rate of $20.67 per square foot up 3 cents from the previous month. Downtown retail submarket was probably one of the worst performers with a $2.21 per square foot decline to $19.80 from March partly due to the market giving back 66,000 square feet.

Denver industrial space submarket continued to show improvements with vacancy rates at 5.29% and a positive absorption of 874,065 square feet year to date. Average lease rates increased .6 cents from March.  Parker – Castle Rock industrial submarket had some of the highest average asking rates of $10.73 per square foot and a vacancy rate of just 2.32%.