The office-space turnaround surprised some industry analysts.

Local real estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander reported that 193,177 square feet of space was filled this year after 131,000 square feet of space emptied during the first half of the year.

The turnaround of more than 300,000 square feet was attributed to the creation of office jobs in businesses ranging from tourism to technology to companies that support Hawai'i's hot residential real estate industry.

Although rising monthly state job counts predicted the need for additional office space, the speed at which space was leased surprised real estate firms such as Colliers and Grubb & Ellis/CBI, which predicted earlier this year that a turnaround wouldn't be seen until next year.

"It was quite a dramatic shift in the last six months," said Mike Hamasu, director of research and consulting at Colliers. "It definitely was a nice way to end the year."

Asking rents ticked up 2 cents to $2.15 per square foot, but have stayed between $2.12 and $2.15 for the past four years, Colliers said.

The pickup in leasing began in the third quarter, with slight improvements, according to reports by CB Richard Ellis Hawai'i and Grubb & Ellis/CBI.

CB Richard Ellis said about 35,000 square feet of empty space was filled from July to September, as Grubb & Ellis/CBI pronounced that the market "has reached the trough of this downward spiral" that began in the third quarter of 2002.

Colliers said the greatest improvement for the year occurred in the Kapi'olani/Ka-ka'ako/King Street area, which filled 80,000 square feet of office space, much of it in the former Gold Bond Building at 677 Ala Moana, where tenants are moving to be near the University of Hawai'i biomedical research facilities under construction.

In downtown Honolulu, about 19,000 square feet of empty space filled, the first improvement since 2000, Colliers said.

Among companies taking substantial space were Innovative Technical Solutions, Central Pacific Bank, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Science & Technology International, Actus Lend Lease, CH2M Hill and Norwegian Cruise Line.

The vacancy rate for O'ahu fell from 13.6 percent at the end of last year to 11.8 percent, according to Colliers.

Next year, Colliers predicts, the strong leasing activity will slow but remain positive, filling 100,000 square feet of empty space, taking the vacancy rate down to 11.2 percent. The company expects asking rents to rise slightly in 2004, though negotiated rents likely will remain unchanged.