EL PASO, TX-Although the reported violence along the Texas-Mexico border has intensified the region’s recession-driven slump, companies continue to make long-term industrial commitments here.

Industrial leasing activity is up on both sides of the border, with El Paso leading the way and Cd. Juarez reversing a three-year negative trend, according to Christian Perez Giese of CBRE’s El Paso office. “In May alone, CBRE’s El Paso/Cd. Juarez office completed lease transactions for industrial properties totaling more than 400,000 square feet, including 82,000 square feet for Mack Technologies,” he says.

Today, El Paso’s industrial real estate market is comprised of 54.4 million square feet stretching from Santa Teresa, NM in the west to Socorro, TX, on the east. The market recorded 725,000 square feet of gross industrial absorption during the first quarter – a 46% increase from the quarterly average in 2010, according to CBRE. The market ended the first quarter 2011 with a vacancy rate of 13.9%, a decline from a high of 15.8% in mid-2010.

These statistics reflect growing industrial sector activity nationally, as indicated in the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ April 2011 Economic Update for El Paso. Increases in activity for March hovered around 10% annualized. In turn, the Cd. Juarez maquiladoras payroll rose by an almost 7% annualized rate during the same month, the benefits of which should be seen in the El Paso economy in the coming months. 

Perez Giese tells GlobeSt.com that the increase, combined with improved employment statistics and the influx of soldiers to Fort Bliss, are all positive signs for the future of the local economy.