Perhaps most impressive, the industrial market absorbed more than 1.3 million sf last year, "a stark turnaround from the nearly one million-sf of negative absorption that was sustained in 2001," according to the report.
Despite the strong absorption, the overall vacancy rate climbed "moderately" to 9.21% from 8.62%. The rise in vacancy during a year of positive absorption was primarily due to vacant new supply of more than 1.1 million sf, Ross reports.
Warehouses fared the best, absorbing 1 million sf in 2002. R&D/flex space absorbed 300,00 sf.
"Absorption as a percentage of total stock was about twice as high in R&D/flex properties as in warehouse buildings, because of the much smaller size of the R&D/flex market," the Ross report notes.
About 2.7 million sf of new space was delivered last year. And while that may seem like a lot, especially in a down market, it is still roughly a million sf below the five-year trailing average of 3.7 million sf that has been completed annually since 1998.
About 80% of the new supply was for warehouses and 20% in the R&D/flex category.This year, only 770,000 sf of new supply is in the pipeline, the company says.
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