Phoenix Business Journal Friday, February 26, 2010 (Excerpts) - Karen Mills was sworn in as head of the U.S. Small Business Administration last April, just as the economic stimulus bill was starting to revive the SBA’s lending programs. Now she is pushing President Barack Obama’s jobs plan, which calls for increased lending to small businesses, tax breaks for hiring and business investment, and programs to help innovative businesses grow.

Mills sat down Feb. 18 with Kent Hoover, the Washington Bureau chief of American City Business Journals, to talk about increasing small businesses’ access to capital...

...We have a program called 504. It’s for owner-occupied real estate, if you expand and create jobs. Temporarily, let’s use 504 to do owner-occupied real estate refinancing -- not the bad stuff, not the speculative portfolios that have been accumulated; but owner-occupied, and you haven’t gone into default. It’s probably less risky than funding an expansion. It looks like we can do it for zero subsidy; we’ll charge a fee to take on the risk, and we’ll need a little administrative oversight. We think we can do $7 billion to $10 billion at very little or no cost to taxpayers.

We have the infrastructure to do that right now. We know the demand is going to be there. (end)

How to get a SBA Guaranteed Loan

January 8, 2010 WSJ - The office market in Washington, D.C., is poised to topple New York as the nation's most expensive, reflecting the declining fortunes of the nation's financial center and the government expansion under way in the U.S. capital.

Rents declined in almost all of the 79 American cities tracked by Reis Inc., a New York based-research firm, in the fourth quarter of 2009. The largest fall was in New York, where average effective rents -- or the net amount tenants pay after landlord concessions -- fell nearly 20% to $44.69 per square foot annually. It was the sharpest decline in rents ever recorded by Reis since it began compiling data in 1981.

By contrast, average rents in Washington were $41.77 per square foot, down 3% annually. Reis estimates that by the end of this year, rents in New York will come down to around $41.07, slightly below their estimates for Washington of $41.27.

Entire Article

Federal Reserve Beige Book Summary
"Reports on commercial real estate markets indicated that demand for space remained weak and that construction continued to decline in all Districts. Atlanta, Philadelphia, Richmond, and San Francisco reported that vacancy rates increased, while rates held steady in the Boston and Kansas City Districts and were mixed in New York. Boston, Dallas, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Richmond commented that the demand for space remained weak. Commercial rents declined according to Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Richmond. Rent concessions were reported in the Richmond and San Francisco markets, and Richmond noted that some landlords had postponed property improvements in an effort to conserve cash. Construction remained at very low levels, with modest improvements noted in public construction in the Chicago, Cleveland, and Minneapolis Districts."

OfficeFinder does not expect much improvement in occupancy until the employment figures turn very positive and positive office absorption can take place again.  We are hoping to see some improvements by the middle of 2011.

If you need an office space, it’s as easy to find as your keyboard and mouse!
For more information, visit www.OfficeFinder.com.

A recent article in the NuWire Investor describes the state of the sublease office space availability throughout the US. In a word, plentiful. In fact, Cushman and Wakefield has pegged the amount of available sublease space at 10.3 million square feet at the end of the first quarter. Cities experiencing the largest increases in sublease office space include New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and Boston.

My educated guess is that there is a lot more sublease office space available than is reported.  With all the recent layoffs, many companies have probably not had time or been willing to prioritize getting their excess space listed.  Many of these companies have more to worry about than a little excess office space. They are trying figure out how to survive.

A word to the wise. If you are considering renting or leasing sublease office space, be careful.  There are many pitfalls that need to be navigated to make sure that your sublease will stand up in the event the sub-lessor defaults. Makes sure to work with someone who knows the ins and outs, otherwise you could find yourself with nowhere to house your employees when you get evicted... without any fault of your own.

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