Carson City retail, office occupancy rates a bit better

It’s steady-as-she-goes and trending in the right direction regarding Carson City’s economic recovery as gauged by retail and office occupancy and vacancy rates.

That was the report from NAI Alliance of Carson City, the commercial real estate office here whose principals and founding partners are Andie Wilson and Brad Bonkowski.

The firm reported the community’s retailing recovery has been slow, steady and “in line with the economic recovery” as the vacancy rate dropped from near 20 percent to under 17 percent. In 2009, the retail rate of vacancy was 19.76 percent; but by 2011, it had dropped to under 17.9 percent, and in December, 2014 it has decreased another tick to 16.86 percent.

The report included only multi-tenant retail properties with more than 20,000 square feet of space. It also said under that radar screen, there is a definite “lack of small ‘Mom & Pop’ spaces available” for small businesses.

“Significant retail and office development appear to be on our horizon,” according to the report, “so we expect to be able to share more good news in the coming months.”

Regarding the office space picture, the report pointed to stabilization. In 2011, a report showed the office market hit a vacancy rate high of 17.83 percent but it has dropped this year to 14.69 percent. The report indicated that 161 properties with more than 10,000 square feet were surveyed, including 16 classified as medical offices.

“While (the) medical office market remained strong due to a stable medical community,” according to the report, (the) “general/professional office market has not rebounded as quickly. although it is moving in the right direction.”