OC Register - Orange County office rents fell at an 8.7% annual rate in the first quarter — 2nd worst drop among 79 U.S. markets tracked by commercial real estate analysts at Reis Inc.

Reis pegged typical Orange County office rents at $27.12 per square foot after tumbling in the past year. Only New York — with its $54 rents after a 12.4% cut in a year — had a bigger drop. (Nationally, rents fell 4.2% in the past year!)

One reason for the Orange County rent cuts was a flood of empty offices. Reis put Orange County office vacancy at 19.6% off all space — up 3.8 percentage points in a year. (Nationally, vacancy ran 17.3% in Q1 — up 2.1 percentage points in a year.)

Only 5 U.S. markets had bigger jumps in their vacancy rates:

    * Seattle: 17.1% Q1 vacancy — up 5.1 percentage points in a year.
    * Phoenix: 25.2%  vacancy — up 4.6 points.
    * Las Vegas: 24.2% vacancy — up 4.3 points.
    * Fairfield (Conn.): 19.2% vacancy — up 4.3 points.
    * Ft. Lauderdale: 20.3% vacancy — up 4.2 points.

Victor Calanog, Reis’ director of research, on the national outlook; “Reis does not expect vacancies to begin declining until 2011. It may take another quarter or two after that for positive rent growth to resume. 2010 will be marked by rising vacancies and negative rent growth, but as the overall economy and labor markets continue to recover, the magnitudes of decline should be far less relative to what we recorded in 2009.”

Officing Today 4/20/2010 - News sources across the globe are reporting on the disruption of so many businesses due to the cloud of volcanic ash over northern Europe that has forced the closure of all airports in the UK, France and Germany. Businessmen stranded away from home or unable to fly to meet colleagues have been beseiging business centres in airport cities like London, Edinburgh  and Manchester  looking for conference airtime. With all the unexpected and very long delays in getting to or from the UK and Europe, business people are turning more and more to the services offered by the serviced office industry.

Executive suites giant Regus reported a 38% rise in bookings for its video conference facilities as a result of delays due to the volcanic ash. Serviced office companies everywhere are opting to use video conference facilities to hold meetings, conduct business and keep things going as normally as possible during this challenging time.

Business centre companies should take a lesson from this experience and start promoting videoconferencing facilities to businesses in their area immediately. But why stop at businesses? Radio reports in London this morning featured a woman visiting friends in Tokyo who was told that her airline could only give her a replacement booking on May 1st, two weeks after her due departure. Maybe she'd like to videoconference her family?
 
Many centres that invested in this equipment have not seen sensible returns from it in the past. Let's hope they don't miss this opportunity to promote the product and get the benefit of the silver lining from this grey cloud.

NEW YORK—Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s new headquarters in lower Manhattan has the kind of amenities befitting masters of Wall Street. The $2.1 billion steel-and-glass building has giant murals, opera-house ceiling heights, and a gym with overachiever fitness classes, like "Awesome Abs."

But a new class of haves and have-nots has emerged—even at Goldman where the notion of have-nots is relative. Outside offices are now reserved only for the firm's more than 300 elite partners. Managing directors, next down in the Goldman hierarchy, almost always get windowless inside offices.

And vice presidents, many of whom had offices before the move, now sit at open-space workbenches that in an earlier era would have been called a typing pool. They aren't thrilled.

"I haven't had a desk like this since high school," said one employee who asked not to be named.

Even some managing directors are grousing. Vice presidents, they note, often get a window seat at their bullpen desks, a sort of consolation prize for having lost an office. "I used to have an office with a view," explained one managing director. "Now I need binoculars to see sunlight."

In many other ways, though, Goldman employees aren't feeling let down by the upgrade. Unlike their old digs on 85 Broad St., which was cramped and had an obstructed view of New Jersey, Goldman's new space at nearby 200 West St. is steps away from the Hudson River, offering a panorama that includes New York Harbor.

The company has been secretive about its new headquarters, especially as it tries to counter criticism that has hurt the company's sterling image. So far, 6,500 of the 7,500 employees that will work in the 43-story building have moved in. Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein arrived a few weeks ago.

Founded in 1869, Goldman has always been based in downtown New York. In 2004, Goldman decided it was time to trade up from its Broad Street headquarters. At the time, financial companies rattled by the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were threatening to leave downtown Manhattan. In 2005, Goldman received tax breaks and grants valued at more than $200 million toward the new building, which stands just across the street from Ground Zero.

 

The new place has a mural in the lobby (bottom, as seen through a window with reflections from street.)

 

Goldman broke ground in 2005. The construction was plagued with problems. In 2007, seven tons of steel fell off the 740-foot-tall building, paralyzing an architect on the ground. Then a sheet of steel plummeted from the 18th floor, landing in a baseball field where a Little League game was being played. There were no injuries.

The first employees arrived by November 2009. The building occupies 2.1 million square feet and features six massive trading floors, each larger than a football field and equipped with enough flat-screen monitors to stock a Best Buy. The basement houses 92 storage tanks that hold 1.7 million pounds of ice made each night when electricity rates are lower than during daytime hours. Air cooled by the melting ice circulates throughout the building.

One of the building's most notable features is the Sky Lobby on the 11th floor. Flooded with light from a glass ceiling, the area resembles a massive auditorium-like space that houses banks of conference rooms, a cafeteria and employee gym. Henry Cobb, a partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the building's lead architect, calls the Sky Lobby the "living room" of the building.

Baristas serve French Toast Baba pastries and lattes in the cafe, not to be confused with the Sky Lobby cafeteria that offers a deep panini lineup and deadly cupcakes, employees say. Considering the old building's cafeteria was in a windowless basement, one of the most welcome features of the new eatery is the light of day.

The 54,000-square foot gym, called the GS Wellness Exchange, has classes from 5:45 a.m. to 7:50 p.m. The new steam rooms for men and women are drawing mixed reviews. Some employees find the idea of "steaming" with co-workers objectionable. Others, not so much. "Once you have seen your colleagues naked in the locker room, steaming with them isn't that weird," says one employee.

The employee reading lounge features Goldman-approved books, including "On the Brink," the bestseller by former Goldman Chairman and CEO turned Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. Employees also can thumb through "The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking" by Kevin Hogan and Mitch Albom's "Have a Little Faith: A True Story."

The reading room is too hushed and open for vice presidents evicted from their old offices to use for confidential phone calls. If they have sensitive issues to discuss, they can slip into private offices now reserved for visitors.

"If I had been at a bench my whole life, it would be fine," said one vice president, "but I used to have an office."

Source: WSJ

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By the end of the decade, droves of previously uninsured Americans will be heading to the doctor’s office as result of health care reform.

But where will they be treated?

Doctors with private practices will soon need larger spaces. And amid a dismal year for commercial real estate, brokers and landlords that specialize in medical space are banking on that growth.

More...

Blogger's Note: A bit of good news among all the negatives.  Unfortunately, the medical office space won't be needed until after the current recession ends and the new Health Care Legislation take effect in 2014. The author of the article was a bit optimistic about the "end of the decade."