BOSTON—Real estate investors and brokers maintain that the office and research and development real estate markets in Greater Boston are performing like thoroughbreds. Well, the industrial market is certainly not a nag. In fact, add the industrial market sector to that elite group to make it part of a high-paying real estate trifecta.

In its second quarter report on the Greater Boston industrial market, Transwestern | RBJ reports that the warehouse and flex markets posted strong gains. In fact, the strong second quarter market continued a robust level of leasing activity the industrial sector has enjoyed for the past three years.

Warehouse vacancy dropped 8.0 percentage points to 11.8%. The overall flex market vacancy rate dropped from 15.9% in the first quarter to 14.8% at the end of the second quarter thanks to 301,000 square feet of positive absorption. In the last three years, flex tenants have absorbed 1.8 million square feet of flex space in the Greater Boston area.

The manufacturing market experienced a slight negative quarter, though net absorption in the past year still totals 558,000 square feet. The overall industrial market in Greater Boston posted 410,000 square feet of absorption and a vacancy rate of 11.5%.

Overall industrial asking rents rose 5.6% year-to-year to $6.10-per-square-foot.

“While not quite as strong as in some of our prior reporting periods, the industrial market maintained its positive momentum, reaching a fourth straight quarter of positive absorption,” said Transwestern northeast research director Chase Bourdelaise. “Based on the related employment data, there's little reason to believe this won't continue.”

Bourdelaise tells Globest.com that he expects the industrial market to continue to post positive results for the remainder of this year.

A number of large deals sparked the warehouse market in the second quarter, including The Boston Globe's purchase of 300 Constitution Drive in Taunton where the newspaper will relocate its printing operations from its current headquarters in Dorchester. Other deals of note included Electric Supply Center's 132,000-square-foot deal in Woburn, Imperial Bag & Paper's 96,000-square-foot transaction in Franklin and Tobin & Sons Moving and Storage's 30,000-square-foot deal in Beverly.

In addition, construction started on Potpourri Group's 450,000-square-foot build-to-suit project in Littleton, which, when it is completed in June 2016, will be the first warehouse completion in the market since 2013.

In the flex sector, General Dynamics leased 136,000 square feet of flex space in Dedham to complement the 90,000 square feet of office space it also leased in the second quarter in Westwood. Other flex deals of note include J&R Cabinets' 50,000-square-foot transaction in North Reading, GEMCO's 27,000-square-foot deal in Billerica, Kaman's 32,000-square-foot deal in Franklin and Comcast's 39,000-square-foot renewal in Westford.

On the investment side, CTW Transport Inc. purchased the 109,000-square-foot 10 Creek Brook Drive property in Haverhill from Marwick Associates, LLC. The deal calculated out to $112.50 per-square-foot.