OFFICE TOWER EXPECTED TO RAISE VACANCY RATES.(BUSINESS)

Byline: DAN HIGGINS Business writer

ALBANY -- Commercial vacancy rates rose in Albany over the last five months and are expected to get worse next year, according to CB Richard Ellis/Albany, a commercial real estate broker that reports on the local market.

The spike in vacancy predicted for 2005 is due entirely to the completion of a 12-story office tower at 677 Broadway, near Clinton Avenue, the report said.

The picture looks better in the suburbs, where vacancy rates dropped slightly.

The survey, one of two on commercial space that CB Richard Ellis/Albany compiles annually, put the overall vacancy rate in Albany's central business …