Al Angelo Building filling up

“Now we’re at the point where we need to move to keep up with our growth as well,” Clary said. Her company is planning a September move to its new downtown space.

So far, major new tenants in the Al Angelo Building are vacating other offices, producing few gains for the area’s overall office occupancy rate. However, office-retail specialist Brett Irons said the building has generated a few inquiries from Portland-based firms, including a software engineering group considering about 7,000 square feet.

“It indicates a little bit more confidence in the market,” said Irons, a broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial in Vancouver.

He said the building’s owners extended liberal incentives to its most recent tenants, offering to pick up between 50 percent and 70 percent of the construction costs for finishing the office spaces.

“They (the owners) have been pretty generous with the tenant improvements,” Irons said.

He said transforming a blank space into finished offices can cost about $65 per square foot, or around $195,000.

“It could include carpeting, cabinets, walling off offices, work rooms, copy rooms and private offices,” Irons said.

Other occupants in the building include MetLife Bank’s mortgage-lending arm, MetLife Home Loans, on the third floor. The building’s ground floor is occupied by a bank branch of Columbia Bank. Building owner, The Al Angelo Co., has occupied the fifth floor since the $57 million building opened in late 2009.