The overall vacancy mark in fourth quarter 2001 was at 10.7%, up from 9.4% in the third quarter. Flex product (office and warehouse combination) is suffering the most at a 22.9% vacancy level. Next comes warehouse/distribution, 7.5% vacant, followed by manufacturing, 4.8%.

Sluggish local and national economic conditions contributed largely to the vacancies, the report indicates. Charlotte's manufacturing sector lost 5,900 jobs from November 2000 to November 2001. The government employment sector grew by 3.8%; wholesale and retail by 3.2%. Unemployment rose from 4.7% in August 2001 to 5.3% in November.

Those numbers affected net absorption which reached only 690,313 sf in 2001, an 80% decrease from the 2000 mark of 3.4 million sf. "Although down for the year, annual absorption exceeded activity for many other U.S. markets which experienced annual negative totals," Ryan D. Clutter, a CBRE investment properties associate who prepared the report, tells GlobeSt.com. Fourth-quarter absorption totaled 179,035 sf.