December 12, 2007
Alpharetta permitted more than 1.5 million square feet of new commercial construction with a value of approixmately $136 million during its fiscal year, which ended June 30.
More than 780 new businesses opened during those 12 months, said James Drinkard, Economic Development director for Alpharetta, in a report to the city's Finance department. That brought the estimated number of jobs in the city up to 105,254.
Average lease rates for Class A office space rose to $23.50 per square foot, and with vacancy rates continuing to fall, landlords are offering few concessions," he said.
"Retail vacancy rates remained under 4 percent in spite of several new properties being introduced into the market," Drinkard said.
He attributes the increasing retail vacancy rate to two factors. The first is the delivery of new properties, such as the redevelopment of the Silos Center in Crabapple, and new strip development at North Main (Ga. 9) and Canton streets.
"We are, however, seeing a slight uptick in vacancies for traditional retail strip centers that is likely resulting from overall economic conditions, the second factor influencing retail vacancies," Drinkard said.
He belives the current "credit crunch" impacts many non-national tenants who rely upon home values for equity loans to operate or finance their businesses when sales volume declines.
"The 'credit crunch' also has a psychological impact on customers, who generally appear to be spending less on discretionary items," Drinkard said.
- www.northfulton.com
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