SW Industrial Market 'Unspectacular' in 2001

VANCOUVER, WA-The 7.2-million-sf Clark County-Southwest Washington industrial marketplace did fulfill any investors’ dreams this year. The market as surveyed by Norris, Beggs & Simpson showed a direct vacancy rate of 10.2% at year-end, up from 8.4% in the firm’s 2000 year-end report.

Opus is under construction on 98,000 sf in their 205 Distribution Park project, but there is little else under construction, according to the report. “The development cycle has already adjusted to the decline in demand,” states the report, written by NBS brokers Kevin LeBerge and Randy Reuter.

So while industrial properties continue to be the least volatile property type, the market’s performance in 2001 “is little comfort to investors and developers (who) have held the Southwest Washington market in high regard for its potential, knowing that the land shortage in the Portland Metropolitan Area will eventually force development.”