San Jose Apartment Market Heats Up
Apartment rents in the San Jose, CA area have increased more this spring than at any time since the peak of the tech boom, according to a study by RealFacts of Novato, CA. The average monthly rent in the area was $1,414. Palo Alto was the most expensive city with an average of $1,929/month. A revitalized local economy and rising home prices are among the factors driving the rental market.

Boston-Area Biotech Market Heats up
The biotech market near Boston has tightened considerably, leaving only few options for tenants looking for class-A lab space around 25,000 square feet in East Cambridge, MA. Of nearly 5 million sf of lab space built in the Kendall Square biotech hub, only 5.1 percent is available for lease. Two years ago, the overall lab vacancy rate there was 26.2 percent. Rents are also rising. Two years ago, lab shell space was leasing for $45/sf. Now, that space is close to $60/sf, equal to the previous market peak in 2001.

San Diego Hotel Development Skyrockets
Hotel development in Southern California is in high gear, with hotel construction in the county of San Diego racing at a breakneck pace. The number of rooms under construction in San Diego skyrocketed 551 percent with eight hotels totaling more than 3,000 rooms underway. That compares to three hotels with 468 rooms under construction during the first half of 2005, according to a survey of the market by Atlas Hospitality Group. In addition to the hotels in progress, there are 9,347 rooms in planning. But that’s a decrease of 9.8 percent from last year.

Minneapolis Class B Office Market on Rebound
The Minneapolis office market recovery is moving from premier buildings to Class-B properties, according to United Properties, a Bloomington, MN brokerage firm. Class-B buildings posted a vacancy rate of 19.1 percent through the first six months of this year, a significant improvement from the 22.7 percent vacancy rate recorded in the same period last year. Class-B rents have also started to edge up as the supply of available space drops. The report estimated that about 850,000 square feet of Class B space has disappeared as buildings have been torn down or converted to residential use.

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