ST. LOUIS—Cushman & Wakefield recently held its annual The State of Real Estate® St. Louis at the Ritz Carlton, and an audience of owners, occupiers, investors and other decision makers heard a lot of good news about the local industrial market. The latest statistics show that the region has continued its solid run of expansion, one that still shows no sign of stopping.
The firm projects that users will absorb about 5.4 million square feet of space by the end of the year. And even though three speculative buildings were completed in the second quarter, the vacancy rate was just 7.3%.
That combination of strong absorption and historically low vacancy rates has pushed developers to build. In fact, Ed Lampitt, C&W's managing director in St. Louis, told the crowd that there has never been more industrial space under construction at one time in the past 15 years.
Developers have 5.8 million square feet of speculative space under construction or recently completed, and over three million square feet in build-to-suits under construction or recently completed, most located along the I-70 corridor.
And while industrial sales have been slow in the first half of 2016 with only one recorded class A sale so far, C&W expects sales volume for this year to hit the $350 million mark, with the most of the sales volume coming from the Metro East submarket.
“The buildings are the market are getting good interest from buyers that are already in St. Louis and new to the market,” Lampitt tells GlobeSt.com.
The biggest deals of the year so far include General Motors' decision to launch the new $45 million Wentzville Logistics Center in St. Charles County, further evidence that the auto industry has helped fuel this expansion.
ST. LOUIS—Cushman & Wakefield recently held its annual The State of Real Estate® St. Louis at the Ritz Carlton, and an audience of owners, occupiers, investors and other decision makers heard a lot of good news about the local industrial market. The latest statistics show that the region has continued its solid run of expansion, one that still shows no sign of stopping.
The firm projects that users will absorb about 5.4 million square feet of space by the end of the year. And even though three speculative buildings were completed in the second quarter, the vacancy rate was just 7.3%.
That combination of strong absorption and historically low vacancy rates has pushed developers to build. In fact, Ed Lampitt, C&W's managing director in St. Louis, told the crowd that there has never been more industrial space under construction at one time in the past 15 years.
Developers have 5.8 million square feet of speculative space under construction or recently completed, and over three million square feet in build-to-suits under construction or recently completed, most located along the I-70 corridor.
And while industrial sales have been slow in the first half of 2016 with only one recorded class A sale so far, C&W expects sales volume for this year to hit the $350 million mark, with the most of the sales volume coming from the Metro East submarket.
“The buildings are the market are getting good interest from buyers that are already in St. Louis and new to the market,” Lampitt tells GlobeSt.com.
The biggest deals of the year so far include
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
