
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280161
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY/ BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MARKET FOR OFFICES SENSITIVE/ DESPITE VACANCIES, AREA NEEDS INDUSTRIAL REAL

When Datacare Inc. left the Roanoke Valley recently, it vacated 50,000 square feet of office space it had been renting in southwest Roanoke County.

The move to Florida by the medical information systems outfit bumped the vacancy rate of middle-quality south Roanoke County office space from 10 percent to 22 percent.

When a business community is as small as the Roanoke Valley's, the loss of one company or the opening of one new office building can make a big difference in the area's statistical picture, said commercial real estate brokers Edwin Hall and Dale Poe.

On Wednesday they released the results of a survey of the valley's industrial and office space for the national Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.

Based on figures compiled last November:

Downtown Roanoke's office vacancy rates ranged from 7 percent for top-quality space to 20 percent for lower-quality space.

In south Roanoke County, vacancy rates ranged from 23 percent for the best offices to 13 percent for lower-quality space.

In north Roanoke County, vacancy rates ranged from 16 percent for top space to 3 percent for older, less desirable space.

Industrial space, with an inventory of 4.2 million square feet of central city and suburban space, had 415,000 square feet vacant, for a vacancy rate of about 10 percent.

Even with that vacancy rate, the Roanoke area needs more industrial real estate to show potential renters, said Poe. He said the greatest demand is for buildings of 5,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet.

Poe and Hall, who have conducted the surveys for years, said Roanoke's neither-bust-nor-boom image served it well last year. While 1990 was "not one of our best years in history," it was acceptable, said Poe.

Hall, who did the office-space portion of the new survey, said he expects a hard 24 months ahead, however. That's because in addition to the quantity of suburban space already available, an abundance of downtown office space will become available by early 1992. That's when Norfolk Southern Corp. is scheduled to move to the new tower, now under construction.

Norfolk Southern's move will leave 60,000 square feet vacant in the Colonial Arms building on Jefferson Street.

Also, Hall said, the Dominion Tower, scheduled for completion around year's end, still has about 50,000 square feet of unleased space.

"We're going to have some space to lease downtown," he said.

by CNB