COUNTYWIDE : Office Buildings’ Vacancy Rate 25%

Vacancies in office buildings, shopping centers and other commercial property in Ventura County are near all-time highs, indicating that the recession has not yet bottomed out, according to a report issued by Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate Co.

And while a turnaround is due soon, business in the county will not rebound strongly until the spring, the company’s experts predicted at a news conference Wednesday.

One-fourth of all the county’s office space stands vacant, Grubb & Ellis reported in its second-quarter review and forecast.

This represents a slight improvement over the first-quarter vacancy rate of 29%, but is above the 23% of a year ago.

The office vacancy rate in Los Angeles County is 18.3% and Orange County 16.5%.

Ventura County’s office leasing market “is still suffering from the oil and defense industry consolidations of last year,” said Bill Fedde of Grubb & Ellis. “There’s also a domino effect caused by market weakness all the way to downtown Los Angeles.”

On the other hand, said Thad Seligman, the firm’s district manager, “it’s a great time to be leasing office space in Ventura County.”

He said building owners countywide are luring tenants with offers of free rent and other concessions.

Store vacancies in the county have reached a record high of 10%, primarily because of slow retail sales, said Bailey Slater of the firm’s retail properties division.

This contrasts with 6% a year ago, according to the report.

“Smaller centers without major department stores or supermarkets as anchors are having increasing difficulty attracting and holding tenants,” Slater said.

Seligman questioned whether the county has enough consumers to support additional shopping centers now being planned.

“There are just so many retail dollars to go around,” he said.

Industrial vacancies in the county have reached 15%, with Thousand Oaks having the highest vacancy rate of 31%, the report says.