Bright Outlook
Tom O’Brien, left, along with Jim Parrack and Mark Beffort, speaks at the monthly Oklahoma City Association of Building Owners & Managers luncheon. (Brent Fuchs)
The Journal Record
Oklahoma City reporter - Contact 405-278-2847
Posted: 08:31 PM Thursday, July 21, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY – Area brokers predict that a lack of financing from banks for new real estate development will have an upside for local occupancy and leasing rates.
“There’s not going to be any new construction, because nobody is lending,” said Tom O’Brien, president of CB Richard Ellis of Oklahoma.
O’Brien, along with Mark Beffort, managing director of Grubb & Ellis/Levy Beffort, and Jim Parrack, senior vice president of Price Edwards & Co., shared their predictions about the state’s commercial real estate market during the Oklahoma City Association of Building Owners & Managers’ monthly meeting on Thursday.
With vacancy rates at about 27 percent at midyear or about 18 percent if you discount all of the Class C properties there, the market for office space in downtown is looking better than it has in years, Beffort said.
“Today downtown, our options for Class A or B office space are really kind of tight,” Beffort said.
Beffort said he has heard the doomsday predictions about what will happen once Devon Energy Corp. vacates all of the office space the company leases in five buildings to move into the 50-story tower it is building downtown.
Still, he remains optimistic that more energy companies will move into the area, building on the synergy that Devon, SandRidge Energy Inc. and Continental Resources Inc. are creating by moving their headquarters downtown.
“Oklahoma City is becoming a hub for midcontinent oil and gas companies,” Beffort said.
Hinting at another possible corporate relocation or major office development, Beffort said he expects another announcement about the downtown area in the next six to nine months that will further the growth of downtown.
Oklahoma City’s retail market is also making a considerable rebound from the last economic downturn, Parrack said.
The vacancy rate for retail space in Oklahoma City stood at about 10.5 percent at midyear.
“I predict that will be in the single digits by the end of the year,” Parrack said.
