Lincoln's retail vacancy rate continued to tick up in the second half of 2014.
According to NAI FMA Realty's Market Report released Thursday, retail vacancy stood at 5.8 percent at the end up 2014, up from 5.6 percent on June 30 and 5.1 percent at the end of 2013.
But local real estate experts say that trend is not likely to hold.
"The vacancy rates will be dropping in 2015," said Richard Meginnis, executive vice president of NAI FMA.
A number of new stores are set to open this year, including new-to-market shoe stores DSW and Skechers. Chick-fil-A is expected to open its first Lincoln restaurant and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market is hoping to have its first Lincoln location open before the end of the year.
There also are unconfirmed reports that H&M will be opening its first Lincoln store at Gateway mall this year.
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Kent Thompson, who owns Coldwell Banker Commercial Thompson Realty Group, said he was surprised the retail vacancy rate ticked up in the NAI FMA report.
"I would say (the retail market) is doing fairly well," Thompson said.
One area of local commercial real estate that definitely is doing very well right now is industrial property.
According to NAI FMA, the industrial vacancy rate fell to 2.4 percent at the end of 2014, down significantly from the 4 percent vacancy rate at both the end of June and the end of 2013. That's the lowest local industrial vacancy rate recorded in the six-year history of the report.
According to the report, the drop was largely due to large amounts of warehouse and former manufacturing space being filled in northwest Lincoln.
One area of the market that continues to struggle is the office market. The vacancy rate had fallen to 11 percent at the end of June after hitting a multi-year high of 12.4 percent in July 2012, but it rose to 11.6 percent at the end of 2014.
NAI FMA's report said that increase was largely due to two new office buildings that opened downtown: Olsson Associates' new headquarters at 601 P St., which has 36,000 square feet of vacant space, and the 110,000-square-foot 3 Landmark Centre at 1128 Lincoln Mall, which opened in December with only one tenant.