The office vacancy rate for MetroWest climbed from 17 to 20.1 percent over 2013 due to EMC recently vacating a 382,000-square-foot facility in Westborough, according to Boston-based Transwestern RBJ.
Average Class A rents for the I-495 West region have fallen from $21.15 to $20.98 over the past year, Transwestern said in its quarterly report released Monday.
The Framingham and Natick areas have been shielded from these negative developments, with 149,000 square feet of absorption over the past 1.5 years, bringing the area’s vacancy rate down from 11.8 to 8.4 percent, Transwestern said. MathWorks also completed construction on its 166,000-square-foot expansion in Natick.
Other key developments over the past quarter include Cavium’s 47,000-square-foot expansion in Marlborough, Gesbo Realty Corporation’s acquisition of the 101,000-square-foot building at 1 Monarch Drive in Littleton for $8.1 million and the divestment of a 164,000-square-foot space at 120 Turnpike Road in Southborough for $9.2 million.
MetroWest has also seen its inventory of 10,000- to 20,000-square-foot Class B parcels decline from 44 to 34 over the past two years, Transwestern said.
The Greater Boston market as a whole saw its office vacancy rate dip from 15.4 to 13.4 percent in 2013, with average Class A rents climbing from $38.65 to $39.52 over that time.
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