Huge surplus of office space available for lease in Fort Wayne
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 9/13/08 @ 10:46 pm - Filed Under Featured, Uncategorized
The Fort Wayne Business Weekly has an interesting piece by Linda Lipp in the most recent edition. The article is entitled “Report says ’huge supply’ of suburban space available.
As many of you know my wife and I recently expanded ourpublic accounting firm. Early last year we spent a fair amount of time looking at existing office space for a suitable location. We wanted the office to be in a commercial space that was within five miles of our house; preferably within two miles of our house. We had several other requirements including that we wanted to own the space and not rent or lease the space since we plan on running our public accounting firm here for at least the next 20 years.
We looked at a house that was in a good location and we had a couple of contractors come in an give us estimates on what it would cost to renovate the house. We also looked at existing office space for sale. In the end we had a new office built per our specifications since it was cheaper…
The report quoted in the FWBW states that 35.8% of the existing office space for lease in Fort Wayne is vacant. That is a huge number! I believe that number based on all of the for rent and for lease signs I see as I drive around Fort Wayne.
The article says that per the report: “Because there is no overbuilding; however, the report predicted the supply should be in balance in one or two years.”
Really?
First of all there is some “overbuilding” going on in Fort Wayne; however, not as much as is normal. Case in point the office I own is part of an office condominium. I own about 1/4 of the building and the other 3/4 of the building is just a shell. It will be a shell until someone either buys it or leases it for several years so the owner will build another space out. So the office space I built last year was “overbuilt” and has space for up to three additional units.
I do not see how it is possible that in the next year or two all of this excess office space could possibly be leased; however, I certainly hope I am wrong!
Mike Sylvester
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2 Responses to “Huge surplus of office space available for lease in Fort Wayne”
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Ok, we take all this unused office space, rezone it to residential, move in all the section 8′ers, clear out my neighborhood OF the section 8′ers, refurbish the houses (they left) down here, get some VETS/policemen, firemen, military personnel BACK into them along with some good, decent WORKING people and watch the city sit back and rake in the *new* sources of tax income…
Simple, huh?
Another problem solved….no applause. Save it for the end.
;)
B.G.
I think the problem with the space issue is more of what it is, where it is and what it will take to make it better. My boss has been looking for some time now and the problems I keep hearing about are:
1. Lease space that is sub-par and priced too high for the quality.
2. Purchasing options that are primarily manufacturing. Most business owners don’t want to deal with out of date facilities that will require renovations or total rehabbed to move them from manufacturing to leasing.
3. New space that is retail oriented and very, very expensive (lease/buy).
Where is the planning committee on all of this? And can someone explain why every two weeks there is an article in the FWBJ or newspaper talking about Bill Bean buying up something else? Is that property being rehabbed and turned or is he just parking them?
I hope we find a new spot becuase the ongoing issues continue to highlight the challenges of doing business in Northeast Indiana.