The Metrowest office leasing market is expected to remain flat for the rest of the year, according to information from CresaPartners in Boston.
Framingham and Natick, which have the strongest demand in the area, have seen their third quarter vacancy rates fall slightly quarter-over-quarter, to 10 percent. The highest asking rental rates in the area average $20 to $25 a square-foot.
Even so, the Metrowest towns are faring far better than their Central Massachusetts, Interstate 495-area counterparts.
Total availability along I-495 is now at about 35 percent, and vacancies are tracking at about 25 percent, both up from last quarter. Average asking rents for Class A space are in the high teens. Rents have been flat for the last year, and are not expected to increase for some time, according to CresaPartners’ report.
Dave Ross, principal at CresaPartners in Boston, said job growth remains the area’s main hurdle, and said he expects a full market recovery will not occur until 2014 or later.
"The issue is not recruiting talent but recruiting companies to move here," Ross said in a prepared statement. "You can have phenomenal space, but if companies aren’t growing, it doesn’t matter."
The report highlights recent activity in Marlborough, where retail giant TJX Cos. has been looking for relocation space to replace and/or supplement its 780,000-square-foot Framingham headquarters, as first reported by Banker & Tradesman. The firm is considering Hewlett Packard’s former campus in Marlborough, the Forest Street Office Park, recently purchased by Atlantic Management Corp. for $8.7 million.
Vestas Technology recently purchased 8.5 acres just east of I-495 in northern Marlborough to build a 27,000-square-foot research and development facility and rent an adjacent 13,000 square feet of office space as part of a $16 million expansion.
And Fidelity Investments, which earlier this year announced it would be closing its 964,318-square-foot Marlborough headquarters, is marketing its soon-to-be-vacated campus on Puritan Way. Fidelity’s headquarters includes 609,318 square feet of office and parking facilities at 400 Puritan Way as well as another 355,000-square-foot office site at 300-350 Puritan Way, according to CresaPartners.
But despite these signs of activity, vacancy in Marlborough is still nearly 40 percent.