IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The High Desert real estate market is picking up a little steam.
The region absorbed more than 291,000 square feet of industrial space during the fourth quarter of 2015, with an average lease rate of 68 cents per square foot, according to Dock High, a news letter published every two months by Lee & Associates Victorville.
Industrial vacancy during the fourth quarter was 5.5 percent.
On the office side, a little more than 52,000 square feet was absorbed in the Victor Valley with an average lease rate of $1.05 per square foot.
Office vacancy was 5.8 percent during the last three months of 2015, the newsletter reported.
The office numbers were encouraging even though that development was build-to-suit, not speculative, said Don Brown, president of Lee & Associates Victorville
“We don’t have the kind of [office] market where we can build something and then, when it’s finished, have someone standing in the lobby waiting to write a check,” said Brown, a co-author of the report. “But it is getting better.”
Manufacturing in the High Desert is expected to grow 2.2. percent this year, while unemployment should drop to 4.7 percent from its current five percent rate, the newsletter predicted.
