The cross-bay twins - Tampa's West Shore and St. Petersburg's Gateway business districts - continue to suffer from high office vacancies.

West Shore is lumbering along with 21.7 percent of its offices unoccupied. Gateway's vacancy totals 23.4 percent. The numbers come from a first-quarter report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Gateway's vacancy declined by nearly 50,000 square feet in the past year, while West Shore's open office space rose 139,000 square feet.

Vacancy stands at 18.7 percent in downtown St. Petersburg and 20 percent in downtown Tampa.

On both sides of the bay, 9.3 million square feet of offices stand empty out of 45.1 million square feet.

Unemployment, much of it linked to the housing crisis, has weighed heavily on office rentals.