Office vacancy rate in Marlborough falls to three-year low

Marlborough, MASS. February 11, 2014 – Marlborough’s office vacancy rate fell by 12 percentage points year-over-year, according to leading commercial real estate intelligence provider CoStar Group’s final 2013 figures. This puts Marlborough ahead of the Route 495 area market average, where the office vacancy rate hovered at 24.5% at the end of 2013, according to Colliers International.

“There is tremendous value in being seen in Marlborough,” said MEDC Executive Director Tim Cummings. “I am pleased to see the private sector realizing this fact and I hope the trend continues into 2014.”

More than a dozen new companies from various industries entered the Marlborough market last year, and many existing businesses committed to expanding their local operations. These economic developments are expected to create hundreds of new jobs and amount to approximately $2 million of additional annual tax revenue for the city.

“I am extremely happy with MEDC’s performance over the past few years,” said Mayor Arthur Vigeant. “They are instrumental to promoting our city as a great place to do business and our success is directly attributable to their efforts. I’m excited to see how things continue to develop this year, as Boston Scientific, Quest Diagnostics and our other new tenants move into Marlborough.”

In 2012, Marlborough absorbed more commercial square footage than any other municipality outside of Boston. Nearly 1.2 million sq. ft. of office space hailed from the big three—TJX Companies, Quest Diagnostics, and Boston Scientific. However, Cummings says, equally significant are the expansions and lease renewals of Cavium Network, Wellington Management, Oxford Immunotec, CardioFocus, IQuum, Rockwell Automation, Sepaton, and Tekelec.

“Our mission has always been to increase the commercial tax base, in order to stabilize the residential tax rate, and ultimately secure Marlborough’s economic future,” said Cummings. “In 2013, we achieved unprecedented commercial growth, we attracted a great number of reputable companies to our city, we secured valuable funding for the development of local roads, and we set up a number of other initiatives aimed at making Marlborough a great place to live, work and play. So, I believe, we’ve done really well with setting and exceeding our annual goals, and we are going to continue on the same path of success in 2014.”

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