Fairfield office leasing healthy, but limited.

There's a Catch 22 in the Fairfield County commercial office market: there's plenty of prospects, but not enough inventory of available Class A office space, according to the Quarterly Market Report of Albert B. Ashforth, Inc., Corporate Real Estate Brokerage.

"The market is hot and healthy. There are still a lot of big deals happening and there are plenty of companies looking for space in excess of 50,000 square feet," said Belinda W. Scanlon, senior vice president of Albert B. Ashforth. "The problem is that the availability of Class A office space is small and getting smaller. You could probably call it a happy problem."

The vacancy rate for Class A office space decreased slightly from 9.2 percent in the second quarter to 8.8 percent for the quarter that ended September 30th. The amount of available space shrank from 3,035,755 square feet throughout the county in the second quarter to 2,893,261 square feet at the end of the third quarter.

"There are only 658,384 square feet of Class A office space available in Stamford, which is the most popular corporate office location in Fairfield County," said Scanlon. "Since this space is split between a number of buildings, the amount of available space in any one location is severely limited."

Stamford remained the area of Fairfield County with the lowest vacancy rate for Class A office space at 5.5 percent in the third quarter, although it had the largest vacancy rate for Class B office space at 19.7 percent.

The average asking rental price in Stamford was $28.98 per square foot for Class A space and $23.42 for Class B space.

The asking rental price for Class A space throughout Fairfield County averaged $25.54 per square foot during the third quarter, a very slight decrease from the average $25.89 per square foot asking price during the second quarter. The average Fairfield County asking rental price during the third quarter of 1998 was $25.80 per square foot.

Greenwich remained the area of Fairfield County with the largest average rental asking prices at $34.17 per square foot for Class A and $37.26 per square foot for Class B. Greenwich also had the lowest vacancy rate for Class B office space at 4.4 percent.

Eastern Fairfield County, which includes Bridgeport, Fairfield, Shelton, Stratford and Trumbull, had the largest vacancy rate for Class A office space at 12.8 percent; and the lowest average asking rental prices for both Class A and B office space at $19.75 and $19.15 per square foot, respectively.

Major Fairfield County leases that were signed during the third quarter of 1999 include: Greenwich - United Rentals; Norwalk - Medialink; Darien - Penten Media; Shelton - Butler Services and United Rentals; Stamford NAC Corporation, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, PamAmSat Corporation, Regis Business Centers, ICON International, Marsh USA, Inc. and Automatic Data Processing; Trumbull: E-Sync.

The Fairfield County Office Market Report tracks commercial activity county-wide and is not specifically reflective of the activity of Albert B. Ashforth, Inc.

Albert B. Ashforth, Inc. Corporate Real Estate Brokerage, a division of The Ashforth Company, specializes in commercial sales, leasing, corporate relocations and investment properties.

Now in its second century of business, The Ashforth Company, based in Stamford, CT, provides brokerage services, corporate development, asset/property management, and construction services.