IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Inland Empire remained the strongest industrial market in the United States during the first quarter of this year, with an estimated 40 percent of the nation’s transactions happening in the two-county market, according to data released Monday.
Nearly three million square feet of industrial space went online in Riverside and San Bernardino counties during the first three months of 2017, Voit Real Estate Services reported in its quarterly report on the region.
Vacancy was 4.5 percent, virtually unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2016 but down from 4.9 percent compared with the first quarter of 2016.
Average lease rates were 53 cents per square foot, up from 47 cents year-over-year, an increase 12.7 percent.
“It’s a very active, sold market,” said Ryan Miller, vice president with Voit. “We’re not seeing any signs of a slowdown.”
The Inland Empire is being helped by companies in Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley that are moving into the region looking for lower lease rates, according to the report.
As a result, average rent for industrial properties between 10,000 and 100,000 square feet was 61 cents a square foot during the first quarter, up from 54 cents exactly one year earlier, 13 percent increase.
“For the newer, state-of-the-art buildings, the percentage increase [was] even higher,” the report stated. “This recent spike has caused serious ‘sticker shock’ among small businesses looking to renew leases that were originally signed in 2011 (and) 2012, when rates were 25 to 35 percent lower.”
One hundred and six industrial buildings – which when finished will cover nearly 24 million square feet -were under construction in the Inland Empire at the end of the first quarter, according to the report.
