By JAMES FINK
Business First

Area commercial real estate insiders Thursday heard what many already knew - namely, that while the impact of the national recession is being felt locally, it is not as severe in Buffalo as it is elsewhere.

That was the general theme and tenor of an annual Western New York market overview presented by CB Richard Ellis/Buffalo.

"We think Western New York is bucking national trends," said David Nasca, Evans Bank N.A. president and CEO. "Buffalo can't avoid the national recession, but there are prospects out there that are real and strong."

Nasca was the keynote speaker at the morning session.

The Hamburg-based Evans Bank has significant amounts of commercial business tied up in real estate deals. Nasca said 48 percent of Evans' loan portfolio is based on commercial real estate deals.

Nasca admits that lending institutions are tightening lending requirements, but said funding remains for qualified projects.

"The perception is that financing is not available, and that is patently not true," Nasca said.

The weakened national economy is hanging over the commercial real estate industry like a dark cloud.

Also hampering efforts are proposals to dramatically scale back public-sector-driven incentives like Empire Zone credits or tightening mandates on industrial development agencies. Many of those are considered crucial for local development efforts.

"I believe pulling incentives is not the right thing to do," Nasca said. "A lot of companies have benefitted from them, and it has driven local development in the city."

The CB Richard Ellis report mirrored Nasca's remarks, pointing out that in many sectors the market was softening. Comparatively speaking, the Buffalo Niagara region is weathering the recession as well as could be expected, the report suggests.

Shana Stegner, CB Richard Ellis's office-leasing specialist, noted that downtown's vacancy rate is 9.8 percent, which is better than the national central-business-district average of 11.6 percent. Suburban office space is running at a 14.63 percent vacancy rate, compared with the national suburban office vacancy rate of 15.9 percent.

"Compared to the national level, we're in great shape," Stegner said.

One ominous sign is in the retail sector, with more than 40 national retail companies having filed for some form of bankruptcy protection in recent months. Many of them have local outlets.

Because of the retail fallout, don't expect to see many new plazas or shopping centers built or expanded in the coming months, warned Michael Clark, CB Richard Ellis' director of retail services.

"Without a tenant in hand, I just don't see too many plazas being built in the next year," Clark said.