Puget Sound Industrial Market Hit or Miss in Q3

SEATTLE-While the overall Puget Sound industrial market stood still in the third quarter, there was more volatility on a market-by-market basis, according to the latest report from Colliers International.

Overall, including sublease space, the region’s 196 million sf of inventory was about 10.9% vacant as of the end of the third quarter, which is essentially unchanged from the end of the second quarter. To get there, though, vacancy rose in the Kent Valley, Pierce County and Eastside markets while dropping in the Seattle and Northend markets.

In the Kent Valley, the region’s largest industrial market with 74 million sf, vacancy rose from 11.6% to 12% during the quarter on 505,676 sf of negative absorption. Results would have been worse had 735,000 sf of negative absorption in the manufacturing a distribution sectors not been offset by 330,000 sf of positive absorption in the high-tech/flex sector, according to the report.