LAUREL, MD-Like clockwork for the past twenty years, Gingery Development Group launches a new development project every 18 months or so to make sure it has enough space to keep up with market demand. The local company is nearing the end of this particular cycle, though, with virtually no empty space. "We are almost completely out of dirt," says principal J. Montgomery Gingery. "We just don't have any more space to develop – we have either built it or sold it or leased it. It is a good place to be," he tells GlobeSt.com.

For instance, Gingery Development Group's Whiskey Bottom Trade Center here, a 181,293 square foot flex/warehouse facility, is now 97% leased. There is just one bay remaining. The company also has about 20,000-square feet available in Gaithersburg.

Gingery points to several reasons for the uptick in activity – not just in Laurel but elsewhere in the BWI industrial market. "People have been putting deals off for so long that they don't have much choice now but to expand." At the same time, he says, companies are looking to move out of their old space for more efficient operations. They are rightsizing their businesses, he says – a trend that is unfolding not only in the office sector but in industrial as well.