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Wineries Fuel Growth In Rural Economy ......Page 6
A UGUS T 201 2 VOLUME 9 NO. 7
Commercial Outlook: 'Cautiously Optimistic' By Therese P. Howe, For Loudoun Business Despite flat demand in some sectors of Loudoun commercial real estate, many local and regional industry professionals continue to view the market's outlook with cautious optimism as they point out a host of factors they hope will fuel future growth. Office and retail continue to lag behind flex and industrial, which have been strong thanks to burgeoning data centers and the perennial draw of Dulles International Airport for the transportation and freight industry. In fact, Loudoun leads the metro region in net absorption in the second quarter with large new leases for flex inventory, according to the Cassidy Turley industrial market report for the second quarter. “This is the first time I can recall our flex number [being at] 12 percent,” Loudoun Economic Development Business Infrastructure Manager Robyn Bailey said. “I had never recalled our flex number being much below 14, 15 percent even during really good times because it's easy to add new product and it's what we have the most zoned land for. “It's somewhat of a unique product for this area,” she added. “I don't know that all markets have the flex that we do, which is more one-story product but can have quite a bit of office space in it. It's a nice price differential for us and quite frankly, that's where all the data centers have been going.” With 40 data centers covering almost 4.7 million square feet and more projects in the next 18 months to include another million, the outlook for flex remains strong. Most recently, Sacramento-based RagingWire opened a 150,000-square-foot facility built by DBT Data at 44664 Guilford Drive. While county officials largely credit Economic Development Assistant Director Buddy Rizer with developing and growing the data center sector, state legislators this year have aided Loudoun with legislation that expands the state's data center sales tax exemption to include data center tenants. While office and retail have been stunted by the downturn in the economy, the county still has its demographics working for it. “We're still one of the most attractive retail markets in the country,” Bailey said. “We are young, we have disposable
Therese P. Howe/Loudoun Business
Prologis recently signed two leases for buildings six and seven at Prologis Park Gateway in Dulles, which received its certificates of occupancy in July.
income, dual incomes, tons of children—all of that is very attractive to retailers, it's just they're being a little leery about making the real estate moves right now but we are first on their list when the market returns.” The advent of large mixed-use communities such as One Loudoun and Kincora also are cause for optimism, as is the recent vote by supervisors to move ahead with the Silver Line extension into the county. While Loudoun's office space is dwarfed by that of neighboring Fairfax, “we believe that with Continued On Page 3 PRSRT STD U.S. Postage
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