Colliers International’s first-quarter 2004 report for the Puget Sound commercial real estate market –– King, Snohomish and Pierce counties –– includes the following:.

Overall office: Inventory –– 86.7 million square feet. Total vacancy (including sublease) –– 16.5 percent.

Overall industrial: Inventory –– 199.6 million square feet. Total vacancy (including sublease) –– 11 percent.

Puget Sound overview: The industrial market “has started the year with a bang,” Colliers said. All submarkets reported vacancy drops and absorption gains, with the exception of close-in Seattle. The bulk of new space will be in the south Kent Valley area and Pierce County, officials said.

The south King County market added more available space. The Time Square project in Renton is the last of the Boeing leased properties to be emptied in their current cycle of downsizing. Activity has remained stable in downtown Seattle, but the market experienced a small bump in vacancy due to some larger spaces becoming empty.

South King County “seems to be on the rise, as the supply of available office space appears to have reached its peak in this cycle,” said Michael George, Colliers senior vice president of office properties in the south end.

He said the recovery should be “long and gradual” as tenants regain confidence in the economy “and start to chip away” at vacancy rates. A speedier recovery is a possibility” as some larger projects, such as East Valley Office Center, are getting attention from regional and national tenants, he said.

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