That should not be difficult to do, since there is a razor-thin 1.1 percent vacancy rate in the Midtown sublet market, according to Cushman.

He said Norwalk's 28.7 percent vacancy rate reflected overbuilding in the 80's and sublet space left from in-town moves to newer buildings at favorable rates.

"Seventeen years have gone by and the city has done nothing to ascertain whether 5 percent vacancies still exist or don't exist."

We could easily see a drop down to about 11 or 12 percent vacancy.

"When you have a 30 percent vacancy rate downtown, you've got to ask how to handle that," he said.

Take, for example, a 3 percent increase each year for continuing occupants and a 5 percent vacancy increase each year.

He said that with rents close to $80 a foot and with a 2 percent vacancy in prime office buildings, prices are firm.

"We had 60 percent vacancy along Broadway," the town's central artery downtown, he said.

In the 1970s, Natchitoches experienced an economic downturn that resulted in a sixty-five percent vacancy in the commercial district.

People look at an 18 percent vacancy and say, 'What happened to Westchester?