Arizona Real Estate Notebook

Okay, I know this is a bit far afield but this is the first really negative article on commercial real estate I’ve seen in a while.

And, yes, I know it’s only Coachella Valley.

In Rancho Mirage, for instance, the office vacancy rate is hovering around the 30 percent mark, and there’s another 240,000 square feet of space in the pipeline. That’s in addition to 157,000 square feet of space currently available for lease in the city, he said. In Cathedral City, the office vacancy rate is at 28 percent, and it’s about 15 percent in Palm Springs.

Investors who were previously buying office properties at $275 or $300 per square foot now find themselves paying $325 to $375, but getting tenants to pay high enough lease rates to cover those costs can be tough, Gottberg said.