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Unemployment Down, Vacancies UpCountywide, more than 40 million square feet of office space sit vacant.by Danny Wool on Jan 07, 2010Unemployment Down, Vacancies Up Unemployment may have inched down in San Jose-Silicon Valley, from a record 12.1 percent to 11.8 percent, but that's no consolation to property owners in Santa Clara County. More than 43 million square feet of office space—the equivalent of 15 Empire State Buildings—still stand open in the county. Just three cities—San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Palo Alto—have eleven empty office towers between them, comprising 3 million vacant square feet. The impact is being felt across the local economy. With so much empty space, there is no need to construct new buildings, therefore keeping unemployment high. Some properties have lost half their value, and commercial property foreclosures could double throughout 2010. And it is a renter's market, with asking rents down 21 percent from last year. Two properties to watch are Oracle's tower on Almaden Boulevard (known colloquially as the Sobrato building, after its builder) and Riverpark II, also in downtown San Jose. The latter, which took twenty years to build, was completed this past June, but like the Oracle Tower, it stands at 100 percent vacancy. With no signs of significant job growth in the immediate future, it could stand that way for a long time to come. Read More at Business Week. by Danny Wool on Jan 07, 2010 |
 Downtown San Jose is currently riddled with vacant office buildings. |
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