Vacancies for Offices Rise, Dip for Industrial Spaces

Ventura County’s commercial and industrial real estate market is giving mixed signals. The office vacancy rate increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 1992, but vacancies in shopping centers and industrial buildings declined somewhat, according to a study by the Ventura office of CB Commercial Real Estate Group.

At year’s end, one-fourth of the space in the county’s office buildings was vacant, according to CB office specialist Tim Grant.

The office vacancy rate of 24.8% was slightly higher than in last year’s third quarter and was also higher than in the fourth quarter of 1991, Grant said. It’s also significantly higher than the 20% office vacancy rate for greater Los Angeles.

The Westlake portion of Thousand Oaks, with a vacancy rate of only 12.2%, had the county’s healthiest office market, while Camarillo, with 31.6%, had the highest vacancy rate, Grant reported.

“We’re bouncing along at the bottom of the market in both sales and leasing activity,” he said. “If there’s going to be an improvement in 1993, it won’t be dramatic. We’re more likely to see an upswing in 1994, and that will depend on an improved economy.”

Unoccupied space in the county’s shopping centers fell to 8.6% in the fourth quarter from 8.8% in the previous three months, the study showed.

The sharpest improvement was in the Conejo Valley, where vacancies fell to 5.4% from 8.4% the previous quarter. The decrease was caused mainly by a lease signed by Long’s Drugs for a large space in Westlake Village Plaza, the report said.

Moorpark had the county’s steepest shopping center vacancy rate at 15.2%.

The industrial vacancy rate stood at 14.5% as of Dec. 31, a slight improvement from previous quarters.

Camarillo’s industrial vacancies fell to 16.8% from 26% due mainly to the relocation of a Technicolor Inc. unit to a Camarillo plant that was formerly occupied by wheelchair manufacturer Everest & Jennings. In Newbury Park, where the Technicolor operation was formerly located, the vacancy rate rose to 27.6%, highest in the county.

Industrial leasing rates have finally bottomed out, but the prices being asked for building sites continue to fall. “Industrial construction in the county is practically at a standstill,” noted Doug Shaw, CB’s industrial specialist.