12 | 2021 Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce Membership Resource Guide
The Future of
Commercial Real Estate We reached out to Carol Epstein, Bev Uhlenhake and the team at Epstein Commercial Real Estate in Bangor, Maine to share their interpretation of the status of local commercial real estate. They have been presenting this data since 2007 to the annual Maine Real Estate Development Association(MEREDA) Annual Forecasting Conference.
As the pandemic forced many businesses to shut down and send workers home, the future of commercial real estate has been a topic of discussion nationwide. Remote working became the norm, rather than the exception. As many companies consider continuing to allow employees to work remotely and downsizing their office space, we wanted to know what that means for the Bangor region? How is commercial real estate faring? Bangor is historically known for its stability. The commercial market is not overbuilt and tenants generally stay put for many years. That said, our current market is a bit of a mixed bag. There are pockets of strength and pockets of weakness. Generally, the real estate market follows the business environment so where businesses are doing well, the commercial real estate market is doing well. We are seeing strong confidence in the future and businesses have left the wait-and-see stance of the early pandemic behind and are now aggressively making decisions and planning for the future. This is translating into demand for space in all sectors. The increased demand and limited inventory have created a momentum that we hope to see continue.
OFFICE - Are office tenants staying put? So far, yes they are. Most office tenants are committed to existing leases which have continued whether their employees are working remotely or on site or some hybrid combination. We hear from many office decision-makers that they are committed to a future of on-site work although there will certainly be more flexibility with some working from home for some part of the week. Office tenants are renewing leases and planning for a future of on-site work. We are seeing interest in office layout modifications to accommodate some level of social distancing. We’re certainly aware that some office users are considering downsizing and relying more on remote work, but so far it’s not been a significant trend in the Bangor market.
INDUSTRIAL - What are you seeing in the industrial sector? Plain and simple - our industrial buildings are full. The communities with the largest inventory of industrial buildings - Bangor, Brewer, Hampden and Hermon - are dealing with a 1% vacancy factor. Such high occupancy has led to strong and
