BELLINGHAM, Wash. – While the residential real estate market in Bellingham continues to heat up, commercial real estate is more nuanced.
Pacific Continental Realty co-owner Ryan Martin says some sectors were hurting while others were doing well in the second quarter of this year.
Retail vacancies are up, mostly driven by the loss of 10 more tenants at Bellis Fair Mall.
That helped increase the citywide retail vacancy rate from 3.6% to 3.9%.
On the other hand, available office space dropped in the second quarter.
That change was pushed by a global technology company’s lease in the Granary Building and an increase in smaller office tenants.
Martin says there’s an acute shortage of industrial space in the city which is forcing those businesses to look elsewhere or consider the lengthy prospect of developing facilities from scratch.