Bigfoot Business Park looks to boost tenant count

Apparently, nobody’s paying attention to email blasts being sent by Gatski Commercial leasing agents Jason Simon and Rob Lujan advertising office space at Bigfoot Business Park.

It took the marketing power of a free lunch and prizes to snag 50 brokers at an open house for the newly remodeled 15-acre office park at 6325-6375 S. Pecos Road, just east of McCarran International Airport.

The owner, a private investor from Shanghai, spent $500,000 on capital improvements last year, including flooring and paint, a resurfaced parking lot, upgraded landscaping and a new monument sign.

Simon’s task is increasing occupancy at the 273,300-square-foot business park, which now stands at about 50 percent in the office buildings.

“We want to make sure all the brokers are aware of what this property has to offer,” he said during a tour of office suites. “Many of them told me they drive by and didn’t know it was this nice inside. They were unaware of the attractive rates and incentives.”

Bigfoot Business Park offers a corporate setting in three, two-story office buildings with turn-key suites ranging from 1,200 square feet to 7,800 square feet. The basic lease rate is 50 cents a square foot, plus 22 cents a square foot for common area maintenance. The park also has four industrial buildings.

“These are not Class A tenants, but there’s a lid for every pot,” broker Frank Gatski told guests at the open house. “The owner is flexible and we can get deals closed fast.”

The new owner is offering reduced rental rates, 4 percent broker commissions and tenant concessions. The office suites are suited for small businesses such as insurance and accounting firms, Lujan said.

The airport area is a tough submarket for office and vacancy rates tend to run higher than the valleywide average, Lujan said. A lot of 5,000-square-foot users have consolidated to 1,000 square feet, and 5,000 feet sit empty, he said.

Business advisory firm Applied Analysis showed local fourth-quarter office vacancy of 25.3 percent on 52.5 million square feet of inventory, up from 25 percent vacancy in 2011. Average asking rent is $1.89 a square foot, down 8 cents from a year ago.

More than one-fourth of existing office space has been vacant for more than five consecutive quarters. The fourth quarter had 78,300 square feet of negative net absorption, or more space vacated than occupied. However, the year finished with 280,000 square feet of positive absorption, Applied Analysis reported.

“Until the local job market starts growing significantly and excess inventory is burned off, we can expect to see rents continue to be weak and vacancy to remain extremely elevated,” RCG Economics principal John Restrepo said.

He reported fourth-quarter office vacancy at 23.6 percent, and said it will be early 2018 before the office market returns to a stable 10 percent vacancy.

HOUSING REBOUND

Las Vegas had the largest gain in single-family housing starts in 2012 with a
96.1 percent increase over the previous year, Houston-based Metrostudy, a Hanley Wood company, reports.

Metrostudy analyzed data from the end of 2012 and provided a detailed look at differences in the trajectory among regions. The largest percentage gains are occurring in the hardest-hit bubble markets such as Las Vegas; Naples-Fort Myers, Fla. (91.6 percent); and Atlanta (91.2 percent).

Land constraints are working to the advantage of builders who have a supply of lots and projects in those markets, keeping the number of head-on competitors low, Metrostudy analyst Brad Hunter said. Builders who have lots in constrained submarkets are able to push prices up much more easily, and they have a strong incentive to do so, he said.

Builders are enjoying markedly stronger homebuyer traffic and sales orders at their subdivisions. This reflects a faster rate of household formations; a modest increase in consumer confidence; rising home prices that bring a sense of urgency to buyers; and affordability combining low home prices and low mortgage rates.

BOOTLEGGER REFINANCE

Nevada State Development Corp., in partnership with Seacoast Commerce Bank, funded a $2.4 million Small Business Administration 504 refinance loan and $2.3 million bank refinance loan for the Bootlegger Bistro at 7700 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Total project cost was
$8.4 million.

Bootlegger Bistro is owned and operated by former Nevada Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt-Bono, who started her career as a lounge singer in Las Vegas. Chef Maria Perry and her husband, Albert, founded The Bootlegger as Venetian Pizza on Fremont Street in 1955.

MULTIFAMILY REFINANCE

Johnson Capital, a national real estate capital advisory firm, has arranged a $15.3 million refinance loan for the 170-unit Desert Sky Apartments in Henderson.

Hunton Hastings, a Johnson Capital subsidiary, funded the 32-year Federal Housing Administration-insured loan.

The money was used to refinance an existing FHA loan, said Scott Graber, senior vice president of Johnson Capital in Denver.

Desert Sky Apartments was built in 1997 and bought by a family-owned business in 2008.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.