The vacancy rate for office space Downtown surged in 2006 with businesses choosing to locate in suburban corridors to the east, north and west of the city, according to a year-end report on Pittsburgh's commercial real estate market.

The report, issued by Grubb & Ellis, notes that the vacancy rate for office space in the Golden Triangle grew to 20 percent during the last quarter, compared with 17.7 percent at the end of 2005.

Meanwhile, the average annual rent sought for top-tier space increased slightly to $21.50 per square foot, from $21.27. Citywide, the year-end vacancy rate was 19.2 percent, compared with 19.6 percent a year earlier, and asking rents rose from $20.56 to $20.72.

Pittsburgh's office market lags behind such pacesetters as Miami, where vacancy is 11.5 percent for downtown and 8.7 percent overall; Boston, with a 10.7 percent downtown vacancy rate and 13.5 percent overall; Philadelphia, whose office space is 10.2 percent vacant downtown and 13.7 percent overall; and Washington, D.C., where only 6.8 percent of office space downtown, and 11.6 percent of office space citywide, is available.

But it is still doing better than Detroit, where the downtown vacancy is 32.2 percent and the city's overall vacancy rate stands at 20.9 percent.

While office vacancy increased Downtown over the past year, it shrank in the eastern suburbs, to 13.9 percent from 20.1 percent; in the north, to 17.3 percent from 23.1 percent; and in the Parkway West corridor, to 22.3 percent from 25.3 percent.

But things could be improving Downtown, said Grubb & Ellis spokeswoman Pamela Lowery. "There are some large users looking."

One of those is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which has expressed an interest in taking 200,000 square feet or more of Downtown space for administrative operations. Such a move could by itself shave a full percentage point from Downtown's vacancy rate.

Then there is the redevelopment of the Fifth-Forbes corridor, finally receiving a kickstart with the construction of PNC Financial Group's massive office/residential complex now under way. Together with Millcraft Industries' reworking of the former Lazarus and G.C. Murphy stores into mixed-use complexes, it could spark a Downtown resurgence that would make a 20 percent vacancy a thing of the past.

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Correction/Clarification: (Published Jan. 19, 2007) The year-end vacancy rates for office space in Philadelphia, as reported by real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis, were 10.2 percent for Downtown and 13.7 percent citywide. This story as originally published Jan. 17, 2007 reported incorrect percentages.