BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Bellingham’s commercial real estate market started the year in pretty good shape.
Ryan Martin with Pacific Continental Real Estate says the retail market is starting to normalize.
“Downtown is still working on their recovery from COVID,” said Martin. “But overall, the outlying strip malls seem to be performing pretty strong. The stock market is still pretty strong. I think the big companies are doing well and the smaller mom-and-pops are hanging on and hoping for better days.”
But Bellis Fair Mall is certainly hoping for better days as it accounts for more than 38% of retail vacancies in Bellingham.
The mall’s owner defaulted on a loan payment earlier this year but Martin doesn’t expect that to affect its operations.
The office space market remains healthy with a vacancy rate of just over 3%.
One tight spot is industrial, which has almost no available properties to offer prospective businesses.
