Looming holiday season and pandemic fatigue boost Bellingham retail businesses

Rachel Showalter
·2 min read

As the holiday season approaches and pandemic fears lessen, retail spaces are filling up in Bellingham.

According to a new report out by broker Ryan Martin, co-owner of Pacific Continental Realty in Bellingham, the city saw more demand for retail commercial property in the third quarter as businesses moved into vacant spaces.

“The decrease in vacancy rate from 3.6% to 3.3% was consistent across the city with increased demand in downtown, Meridian corridor, and the Bellis Fair Mall,” Martin said in the news release accompanying the data.

Despite the average asking rate for retail space moving slightly higher than last quarter and Bellis Fair facing a potential change in ownership, Martin said the vacancy rate at the mall fell from 14.8% to 12.2%.

Martin added in the release that a handful of tenants started leasing space at Bellis Fair along with Spirit Halloween. Though, in a follow-up telephone interview, Martin said he expects vacancy rates to increase again in the first quarter.

“In the fourth quarter, you’ll see more Christmas and holiday stores open up. Usually, it falls off in the first quarter when they close,” Martin said.

Although retail spaces are filling up right now, the report shows office space vacancy in Bellingham continues to increase.

According to the report, office space vacancy is now at 4.1%, which is up from 3.6% in the second quarter, according to Martin.

“There is currently a trend of medium- and large-size office tenants reducing their leasable footprint in order to lower costs and manage more employees working from home,” Martin said.

Meanwhile, the report showed some wiggle room in the industrial market for tenants looking for warehouse space. The vacancy rate remains low but increased in the third quarter from 1.4% to 1.7%.

The cost to lease industrial space also increased for the fourth straight quarter with the monthly average asking rate at $0.86 per square foot.

“The industrial market continues to be strong with few new buildings being constructed and demand for quality storage warehouse space strong,” Martin said.