BUSINESS BRIEFS
Office space vacancies shrink
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Expanding Hawai'i companies helped fill the equivalent of 10 floors of office space in downtown Honolulu during the first three months of the year, PM Realty Group says.
About 100,000 square feet of vacant downtown office space was leased. The activity, which included some businesses moving from other parts of O'ahu, left 9.1 percent of downtown office space vacant, compared with 11.1 percent at the end of last year.
PM Realty forecasts that job growth for businesses could cut the vacancy rate to 6.9 percent by the end of 2008.
GIFT-CARD FEE LEGISLATION DEAD
A measure allowing the charging of some gift-card fees died in a state Senate committee yesterday. Sen. Ron Menor, chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, said the bill wasn't in the best interest of consumers.
The measure was supported by financial service businesses that issue gift cards and would have modified a 2005 Hawai'i law barring fees.
ENRON EX-CEO TESTIFIES MONDAY
HOUSTON — Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling will have to wait until Monday to make his highly anticipated appearance on the witness stand in his fraud trial here.
Skilling didn't get to testify yesterday, as expected, because another defense witness's testimony lasted far longer than Skilling's lawyers had said it would.
