The US economy entered the beginning stages of recovery in the third quarter with improved GDP and a rebound in retail spending. The industrial market is playing a key role in that overall economic growth. Thanks in large part to the growth online shopping, retail sales increased 1.9% in September, according to a new report from Colliers International.

Several research outlets have estimated the positive impact increased online shopping would have on the industrial warehouse and distribution market, but data from the third quarter made it clear. The US industrial market had 165 million square feet of positive absorption and a national vacancy rate of 5.6%—up only a nominal .6% from the third quarter 2019—despite strong new construction activity and new supply deliveries.

The positive absorption activity was spread across 58 markets nationally, but the Inland Empire, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and Columbus were the top markets for occupancy gains, according to the Colliers report. Each of these markets had 8 million square feet or more of positive absorption.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.