By Scott Crabtree & Liz Amaro

INVESTMENTS/SALES – Investors have already factored the expected Fed rate drop into their underwriting over the past few months, so we don’t anticipate any immediate impact—especially with the pending election cycle. However, investors are sniffing a bit harder at deals, and the bid/ask delta seems to be narrowing. We are anticipating that in Q12025 with the election in the rearview mirror and widely anticipated additional Fed easing, investors will get more aggressive on underwriting and closing the gap to kick off an upward trend for investment sales transactions.

On the flip side, owner/users have been enjoying less competition, with investors being less aggressive on their underwriting for filling vacant spaces, but we see this window closing…

OFFICE LEASING – It is tough to say the office market has turned around (even for an eternal optimist, as we are). Still, despite the news and current vacancy rates—and even with some office assets returning to lenders—we’ve seen more activity and leasing in the Boulder market over the last few quarters than we did in the previous few years.

City of Boulder is taking proactive steps to increase commerce in downtown and Boulder core areas by launching the Affordable Commercial Grant Pilot Program which is step in the right direction.  The large county tax increase in the last assessment significantly increased NNN for commercial assets, which seems to have given company decision-makers another reason not to return to the office and sign long-term leases…

RETAIL LEASING – Retail on Pearl has been hot and cold over the past year and right now we would say it is lukewarm.  Rates vary widely, ranging from $25–$75 NNN for current on-market spaces. Recent high-watermark transactions closed in the $70–$80 NNN range for the new construction at the hard corner of Pearl and 11th, where Cotopaxi and Marine Layer have leased space. Retailers are willing to pay up for prime time, high visibility retail space on the bricks of Pearl Street, while spaces on the “outskirts” of the bricks are sitting vacant for much longer than we would expect.  As we all know, location is everything, but especially when it comes to retail…

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