Every January, members of Honolulu’s commercial real estate community gather in a hotel ballroom to hear local experts predict what the market will do in the coming year.

And each year, the prognosticators come fairly close in their assessments of what will happen in the commercial, retail and industrial markets.

But in contrast to the upbeat presentations forecasting lower vacancies and higher prices over the past several years, the mood was somber when the group got together last week.

The consensus was that commercial real estate sales, which plummeted in 2008, will drop further along with land prices and rents while office and retail vacancies will rise.

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2009/01/26/story3.html

Colliers Monroe Friedlander has been awarded management contracts for two Maui retail centers totaling more than 80,000 square feet.

The Festival Companies chose Colliers Monroe Friedlander to manage and continue leasing the Fairway Shops at Kaanapali and Napili Plaza in West Maui.

Colliers Monroe Friedlander now leases and manages over 6.7 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and high-tech property in Hawaii.

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2009/01/19/daily57.html

Oahu’s office vacancy rate could rise to 10 percent by the end of 2009 as the effects of the recession create more unoccupied space.

The vacancy rate for Oahu’s 15.7 million square feet of Class A, B and C office space was 8.6 percent at the end of 2008, according to a report by Colliers Monroe Friedlander. That number was based on 139,509 square feet of negative absorption, or space that was vacated, for the year.

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2009/01/12/focus5.html

The vacancy rate in office space on Oahu has increased to 8.6 percent and is expected to continue softening as unemployment and the economy worsen, according to a year-end report from commercial real estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander.

The office vacancy rate, which hit a decade low of 6.5 percent in mid-2007, has risen as firms related to real estate, construction, tourism and retailing downsized or closed their offices, said Mike Hamasu, Colliers’ consulting and research director.

As vacancy rates continue to creep up and tenants continue looking for their best economic situation, many owners will be forced to reduce their asking base rents, Jeff Shinagawa, vice president of Colliers’ Property Management Division, said in the report.

“This will result in lower returns and expectations for asset performance,” Shinagawa said.

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