BOULDER - For the past two years, local real estate brokers would boast that companies couldn't find any space more than 5,000 square feet in downtown Boulder.

A low real estate vacancy rate of 4 percent to 5 percent was the sign of an extremely healthy market.

But at the onset of 2009 the story is changing.

Suddenly there are a dozen or so spaces more than 5,000 square feet available - a couple more than 10,000 square feet, and one coming on the market at 20,000 square feet.

The majority of new space available are subleases - or space that existing tenants offer to fill out the remainder of their lease commitments. That's not a good sign of the economy, local real estate brokers say. It means businesses are falling short of their growth projections when they originally signed the lease. The companies are likely reducing employees and therefore cutting back on space.

The only silver lining is for firms that have been yearning get into downtown Boulder, brokers said. Now could be a good opportunity to jump in.

"It's a significant shift for downtown Boulder because those are going to be first-class spaces at a slight discount rate because they are subleases," said Eric Brynestad, a commercial real estate broker with Jones Lang Lasalle.

Collective Intellect is looking to sublease 16,000 square feet at 1433 Walnut St., DTJ Design has 12,000 square feet at 1881 9th St., Texture Media has 10,000 square feet at 929 Walnut St., Marketforce has 10,000 square feet at 1877 Broadway, Fuser has 7,700 square feet at 1360 Walnut, First National Bank is subleasing 7,000 square feet at 1155 Canyon Blvd., and Greenhouse Partners has 7,000 square feet at 1011 Walnut St.

Several brokers said they know of another upcoming downtown Boulder sublease of more than 20,000 square feet.

Chris Jensen, director of operations at Boulder-based Keys Commercial real estate, said he hasn't seen lease rates drop in downtown, yet. They might drop a little in 2009, but not by much, he said.

"Fortunately, downtown Boulder enters this market with a considerably low vacancy rate," Jensen said. Despite the new space available, the downtown market still boasts only a 7 percent to 8 percent vacancy rate. Anything below 10 percent is considered healthy.

Brokers said the average office lease rates in downtown Boulder are running at $18 to $22 per square foot, triple net - and about $25 per square foot for some of the newer construction downtown.

"I think businesses that are successful will slowly absorb those subleases, and we'll start to come out of this dip at the end of 2009," Jensen said.

Chris Boston, vice president of brokerage services at Boulder-based Gibbons-White Inc., is a bit more bullish on the market. He predicts the spaces available now will be filled up within the first six months of 2009.

"Overall, the end of 2008 was very slow, but 2009 is getting off to a fast start," Boston said.

Boston and Jensen said the downtown retail real estate market has remained steady so far - not much space has become available on the Pearl Street Mall. But behind the scenes, experts said retailers are hurting.

"We have had an unprecedented number of retail tenants coming to us requesting help on their lease," said Boulder-based W.W. Reynolds Cos. President Jeff Wingert at a recent economic forecast event.

The Jan. 16 announcement of Circuit City's complete liquidation and store closings will soon leave about 30,000 feet of retail space available just east of downtown.

Contact David Clucas at 303-440-4950 or e-mail dclucas@bcbr.com.