Tenants Remain Titan in Portland Industrial Market

PORTLAND-Overall industrial vacancy rose to 9.3% by the end of June from 8.9% at the end of March, according to the just-released mid-year report from Grubb & Ellis.

Thanks to build-to-suit and owner-build projects in the warehouse and distribution sectors, net absorption was positive at 427,457 sf in the second quarter, which is a big improvement from the first quarter, when negative absorption totaled 883,680 sf. Average net absorption in industrial over the last five years has been 3 million sf per year, according to the report.

The largest industrial submarket here, with 21.3 million sf, is the Northeast-Columbia Corridor, which saw its vacancy rate rise during the second quarter to 10.3% on negative absorption of 277,631 sf. The Westside submarkets, the 19.6-million-sf Sunset Corridor and the 1.l-million-sf Highway 217 Corridor, also saw negative absorption and are sporting the region’s highest vacancy rates at 12.2% and13.8%, respectively.