The Kent Valley market, the largest industrial market in the region with 95.2 million sf, held up the best. Kent Valley vacancy rose from 6.24% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2002 to 7.17% as the first quarter of 2003 comes to a close. Net absorption was a negative 697, 343 sf.

The 21-million-sf Eastside industrial market, made up predominately of flex-tech space, saw vacancy rise 2.58 percentage points to 13.18% on 246,224 sf of negative net absorption. The Seattle Close-In market, the second largest industrial area with more than 70 million sf, saw vacancies jump 3.81 percentage points to 5%. The Snohomish County industrial market saw vacancy rise from 14.03% in the fourth quarter of 2002 to 14.55% in the first quarter 2003.

CBRE industrial broker Bob Swain tells GlobeSt.com the Port of Seattle is the reason behind the jump in vacancy in the Close-In market. The Port this quarter began marketing 1.26 million sf in four buildings that hadn't previously been tracked, says Swain. Three of the buildings totaling some 800,000 sf were vacated by Hasbro, which consolidated operations in Long Beach, CA, says Swain. The Port is marketing two of the buildings for sale or lease. Excluding the four buildings, the vacancy rate in the Seattle Close-In market would have only increased 1.01 percentage points from the fourth quarter to 3.20%.