Commercial Scene : Santa Monica Occupancy Up, Westside Down

While five Westside markets reported reductions in office tenancy, a record amount of high-rise office space--386,692 square feet--was absorbed in Santa Monica.

In a study by Grubb & Ellis of nine sub-markets in the West Los Angeles region, reductions in occupied office space were reported in Century City, Brentwood, Hollywood, Marina del Rey, Miracle Mile and a sliver of unincorporated county territory. However, those losses were offset by the absorption total in Santa Monica, which was the largest gain in office space occupancy ever recorded there.

At the end of the first quarter this year, the vacancy rate in Santa Monica was 11%, and that was one of the lowest in the West Los Angeles area, the report added.

John F. Carpenter, senior vice president and district manager of the Grubb & Ellis office in West Los Angeles, attributed the Santa Monica absorption rate to the city’s recruitment over the past few years of office development.

The study also said that the Santa Monica office market was “the prime beneficiary of IBM’s recent consolidation of its two branch offices in Brentwood and Torrance.” IBM relocated the divisions into 240,000 square feet in the Santa Monica complex known as Colorado Place.