By Betty Reid | The Arizona Republic
As values on residential property in Phoenix continue to recover post-recession, experts say growth in the commercial sector will take more time.
The city is saturated with commercial space, experts say, but they have seen positive signs in certain areas.
Experts say the housing market is the first to go down in a bad economy and the first to bounce back. The commercial market follows.
Permits for new commercial buildings hit a high in fiscal 2007, when the city approved 429 permits. A year later, the recession hit and permits tumbled. In fiscal 2009 only 100 were issued.
Today, new commercial building construction permits are down across the board with 59 in fiscal 2012, according to the Phoenix Planning and Development Department. The numbers include permits for new industrial, retail and office space.
It does not include adaptive reuse projects, which change an existing space to work for something new.
