Phenicie said last week the U.S. 36 corridor has about 1.2 million square feet of sublease space on the market. Another 200,000 to 300,000 square feet could go on the sublease market before it's finished, and it will probably take 18 to 24 months for sublease space to get occupied, he said. Although Phenicie said commercial real estate has substantially slowed, he expects things to start picking up again in September. Cody said he has heard the amount of sublease space available in Longmont has also increased recently. In the next nine months, he said he sees vacancy rates rising, and larger companies like Sun and Level 3 to sublease space, but believes the economy will slowly improve and companies will grow along with it.
Gibbons also considers the tech slowdown a temporary condition.
She said many companies got caught up grabbing extra space during the past few years. Tenants often found themselves taking twice as much space as they needed because their neighbors and competitors were growing so fast, she said. She said she believes the market will correct itself and tech sectors will grow at a more stable pace in the future. A lot of tech space is on the market now. I think they'll be more conservative in the future.