MIAMI—Key market bellwethers—increased leasing velocity, the reemergence of speculative construction, and strong retail, manufacturing and transportation industry performance—signal the start of what very likely will be a positive year for industrial real estate in the United States. So says Jim Dieter, executive vice president of industrial brokerage at Cushman & Wakefield.

“The market clearly transitioned into recovery in 2011, after beginning to gain momentum during the second half of 2010,” Dieter wrote in a recent report. “Leasing activity last year exceeded 417 million square feet. As a result, vacancy rates have stabilized in almost every market across the country. The current national average of 10% reflects a decrease of 80 basis points from year-end 2010.”

According to CushWake, markets with the largest year-over-year gains included Central & Northern New Jersey (up 83.2%), Phoenix (up 76.1%), Miami (up 44.2%) and Dallas/Fort Worth (up 32.4%). Part of the reason for the rise is low construction levels.

Now, with demand outpacing supply in many key markets, Dieter sees speculative development pop up, but still in a conservative manner. Industrial has been a hot story in South Florida—and in pockets of the Southeast—in early 2012.

Flagler Real Estate Services inked Florida’s largest industrial deal in two years and the largest in South Florida in more than four years in early January. Also in January, Butters Construction & Development shed some of its industrial properties. Butters sold a four-building, 208,590-square-foot portfolio to Industrial Income Trust for $18.9 million. And H&R REIT won the confidence of investors with a refi on an industrial portfolio spanning three states and 2 million square feet.

Michael Strober, senior vice president at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com there’s one golden rule in the commercial real estate industry right now: strong sponsorship gets deals done. Strober inked the H&R REIT deal. “If you follow that pattern,” he says, “I think we are going to see a much more successful 2012 than we did in 2011.”