Florida’s industrial real estate sector is performing well, Florida Trends reported, as the statewide vacancy rate is just 10 percent. Shane Soefker, a managing director at Cushman & Wakefield of Florida, said the sector was healthy because it hasn’t suffered from the over-development that’s plagued the residential side and because industrial structures can be built quickly to respond more quickly to tenant demand. “Industrial is traditionally one of first product types to lead from recovery,” he said. [more]

The industrial real estate market is showing some welcome improvement, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s midyear report, released today. Leasing activity nationwide is up 25.8 percent compared to the same time period a year earlier, the report showed. The vacancy rate dropped .2 percent in the second quarter, down from 10.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, marking the first decline seen in 11 consecutive quarters. Also buoying confidence in the market is the relative slow rate of new inventory hitting the market so far this year, the report showed, with just 8.2 million square feet of construction completions in the first half of 2010, down 80.9 percent from the first half of 2009. Jim Dieter, an executive vice president with Cushman, said that the relatively low rate of construction will likely aid in the market’s stabilization in the coming months. “With construction levels at historical lows, we expect the U.S. industrial market to continue to strengthen through the remainder of 2010,” Dieter said. TRD

Several indicators showed a weakened industrial real estate sector in the third quarter of 2009, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report released today. The country’s industrial vacancy rate reached 10.3 percent at the end of the third quarter, its highest in 15 years and a 2.2 percent rise over 2008, while industrial space under construction fell to 15.2 million square feet, its lowest quarterly total since 1995. The drought in new construction activity may eventually work to lessen the pace of soaring vacancy rates, though, the report predicts. Overall leasing activity in the industrial sector also fell to 169.5 million square feet so far this year, an 18.8 percent decline from this time in 2008. Long Island, Palm Beach, Fla., and Tampa, Fla., were among the few markets that saw an increase in leasing transactions. User sales and investment sales saw year-over-year drops of 36.4 percent and 65 percent, respectively. TRD