By most estimates, upwards of four million sf of new industrial space has been put on the market in just the last year. That would seem to provide plenty of options for end-users, but "most of that has already been absorbed," says Hayden Tiger, regional director for First Industrial Realty Trust in Livingston, NJ. "That 's leading to a wave of new development that, itself, will most likely be absorbed even before it hits the market. This building-in-check will prevent a glut of space, and vacancies will remain low."

Because of the market's tightness, developers are looking for ever more inexpensive land on which to build. Some of the new hot spots, according to Tiger, are in relatively unlikely places like Morris and Somerset counties, largely suburban and rural until now.

Even in the highly industrial NJ Turnpike corridor, things are changing. There, development is moving southward: "Exit 7A has become a hot spot for distribution," Tiger reports. Exit 7A is south of Trenton, a good 50 miles south of Newark.