Submarket Snapshot: Downtown Long Beach

The Downtown Long Beach submarket is still struggling, but it did a little better in the fourth quarter than it did in the third, according to a report by Colliers International.

Downtown Long Beach has 48 office buildings totaling almost 5 million square feet of office space. It’s vacancy rate was 19.7 percent in the fourth quarter, down slightly from 20.6 percent in the pervious quarter.

It’s doing slightly better than the South Bay market as a whole, which saw 20 percent vacancy in the fourth quarter.

The submarket saw 110,200 square feet of leasing activity and 48,400 square feet of net absorption.

There was no new office construction in the fourth quarter and none is underway. In fact, recently, office buildings in the submarket have been converted to residential buildings.

Rents in Downtown Long Beach were $2.31 a square foot a month in the fourth quarter, higher than the South Bay average of $2.31 but lower than the market’s star, the El Segundo and Beach Cities submarket, which saw rents at $2.96.

The biggest sale in the submarket in the fourth quarter was Ocean West Capital Partners acquisition of 100 West Broadway from Alder Realty Investments for $35.2 million, or $168 a square foot.