SiliconBeat

Commercial property owners in Silicon Valley are facing their most inhospitable environment in two decades, according to a press release put out by Cornish & Carey Capital, the financing arm of the Santa Clara-based commercial real estate broker that is touting the launch of a new division specializing in “distressed assets.”

”For the first time since the 1980’s, owners are challenged to maintain occupancy and profitability in an environment where lending has decreased significantly,” said Cornish & Carey Capital co-founder Brad Zampa in a statement. “Distressed assets will require capital in a climate where most lenders are more motivated to clear their balance sheets than to fund additional capital.”

We’ve been watching the deterioration of the availability rates in the amount of commercial  space that is for lease, particularly office space which hit 14.4 million square feet as of Dec. 1 according to Colliers International, up 54 percent from the same time the year before and the highest level ever as far as we can tell.

Research-and-development space for lease stood at 26.8 million square feet, up less then 1 percent from the same time last year, but it was the first year-over-year increase in available R&D space since June 2004. Nevertheless, it remains far below the post dot-com crash high of 41.6 million square feet for lease as of Nov. 1 2003.