Two things made downtown look dull, but mistakenly. The first was a rise in vacancies, but with 1998's Class A vacancy rate at a tiny 2.1 percent, vacancies had nowhere to go but up. The second factor was the lack of big new leases. The biggest deal was Milacron taking all 75,000 square feet of a new Corporex building near the Grand Baldwin. After that, the deals get smaller.
Colliers expects downtown to improve.
The renovations of the WCI building and the former David Shoe buildings are expected to draw new tenants, and the completion of Fort Washington Way construction will end some of the traffic headaches. The fact that there is that new activity is a positive sign. Outside downtown, the keystone of the office market is Blue Ash, which now appears to be getting stronger. Up Interstate 71, traffic was the big turnoff in the Fields Ertel Road area, just as several new buildings were opening. Duke-Weeks Realty Co. has been able to fill its Deerfield Crossing tower with tenants from its other developments, but the owners of One Waterstone Place and Northlake haven't been as fortunate.