Greater Mankato Growth recently completed an update to last year’s office/commercial vacancy analysis. The 2018 vacancy analysis was conducted during April, as was this year’s 2019 update.

The 2018 vacancy analysis served as the baseline for the update.  The County’s property information system was utilized to calculate the total square footage of the buildings on parcel pertinent to this analysis. This resource provided the “denominator” for the vacancy rate calculation.

To compile the vacant square footage, Greater Mankato Growth utilized multiple methods, including:

• Online research of national commercial real estate sites
• Online research of local commercial real estate sites
• Windshield surveys of commercial property
• Cross referencing with Blue Earth County Assessor
• Outreach to area businesses
• Consultant services of Data Noir, LLC
• Review by City Staff

As part of this analysis, office space and commercial space that could easily be converted or has been office space in the past were inventoried. It is important to note that considerations were made for:

• Buildings that are about to be filled;
• Buildings listed for sale that are not vacant (an owner looking to sell to another owner);
• Buildings that will be demolished, rather than occupied by a future tenant;
• Buildings that are not currently vacant but may become vacant in the future;
• Buildings that are leased but looking for a sub-leaser.

There were 49 office/commercial listings (84 in 2018) identified through this analysis totaling 179,036 square feet (266,730 square feet in 2018). This results in a vacancy rate of 6.13% (9.2% in 2018)

To provide context, of the vacancy rate, below are items of note compiled from the most recent figures calculated by CBRE on the 3rd Quarter of 2018, (April 11th 2019.)

• National vacancy rate for office space is 11.8%.
• The national office vacancy rate for suburban markets is 13.7%.
• The national vacancy rate for downtown markets is 10.2%