LDS Church Downtown Plans Pinching Office Space

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The LDS Church is largely to blame for a serious pinch in high quality office space downtown. Commerce CRG realtor Mike Richmond says the Church's plans to revitalize the city center include slowly emptying the half-million square feet of office space at the Triad Center to make room for two college campuses. Similarly, the Church is not renewing leases on businesses housed in the Key Bank tower, which it will most likely tear down to accommodate mall renovations.

The result is a less than two-percent vacancy rate in the highest quality office space downtown. Richmond says growing businesses are being forced to split their workforce into different buildings, double up or leave the downtown area.

As recently as last December, Richmond says downtown vacancy rates for Class "A" office space were closer to four and a half percent. He says the best short-term solution is for developers to upgrade out-moded office space that is more readily available in the city center. An example is the recent acquisition and renovation of the historic Walker Center on Main Street.

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