Stronger leasing, positive absorption driving PBC industrial market

An improved business environment has led Palm Beach County’s industrial market to see a one-percentage-point drop in vacancy in the last year, according to a report from Cushman & Wakefield. Vacancy in the county dropped to 7.8 percent in the second quarter of 2012 from an 8.8-percent rate in the second quarter of 2011. While direct asking rents fell by 60 basis points in the same period, the report projects them to increase in the next 12 months. Leasing has risen 24 percent in Palm Beach County, according to the report, with a total of 753,373 square feet of activity in the second quarter. — Alexander Britell