Heads of two of the Spokane area’s largest commercial brokerages say their companies have tallied consecutive years of record volume in terms of sales and leasing combined.

Dave Black, CEO of Spokane-based NAI Black, says the brokerage saw an increase in sales and leasing volume of 22 percent compared with 2014, which also was a record year for the brokerage.

“We did well over $100 million in sales and leasing volume,” Black says, adding that notable sales included the former Nut Factory building and the Ashley Furniture building, both along the Interstate 90 corridor.

Property management has leveled off a bit in recent years because that volume had been boosted by the amount of bank-owned properties NAI Black managed during the recession, Black says.

Also, Seattle-based Unico Properties LLC acquired Rock Pointe Corporate Center in 2014 and took over management of that property, further skewing recent property management performance.

Black claims NAI Black’s development entity is trending up over 100 percent in annual revenue.

“We’re doing quite a bit of residential subdivisions, where we sell lots to builders,” he says. “We’ve always developed lots, but we didn’t do much during the recession.”

Black says the company currently is developing nearly residential 1,000 lots.

Larry Soehren, president of Spokane-based Kiemle & Hagood Co., says sales and leasing volume in 2015 was up 35 percent in 2015, compared with volume in 2014, which also was a big year for the company.

“Some transactions were larger, but that doesn’t drive a whole year’s worth of volume,” Soehren says. “We just had a lot of good transactions.”

The strongest geographic areas recently for commercial real estate transactions have been the Valley and Liberty Lake, where Comcast is leasing a new 80,000-square-foot building in the Meadowwood Technology Campus.

The Spokane-area retail vacancy rate has dropped to 8.8 percent, down from 10.2 percent, Soehren says.

“There’s still good demand for high-quality retail space,” he says, noting that the recently constructed Peppertree Plaza on the northwest corner of Division Street and Third Avenue has drawn a lot of attention from prospective retail tenants.

The downtown area of the office sector isn’t seeing such growth. “Overall, the vacancy rate went up to 17 percent,” he says. “There’s not a lot of activity.”

The departure of Macy’s department store is contributing to challenges downtown, Soehren says, adding that he hopes to see some local interest in acquiring that property.

“A local buyer will understand the market better and be willing to spend the capital that’s needed,” he says.

Kiemle & Hagood’s leasing and sales volume for the first two months of this year were 40 percent higher than last year, Soehren says.

“I wouldn’t project that through the end of the year,” he says, adding that he expects activity to become more cautious as the year unfolds.

“Presidential election years tend to be somewhat flatter,” he says. “People are uncertain who is going to be in charge as it relates to taxation and regulation.”

Still, Soehren says he’s optimistic overall about 2016.

“There’s a lot of good growth activity in the community, although it’s not meteoric,” he says.