Leasing activity for 2003 was up to 4.7 million sf from 4.1 million sf the year before. Perhaps the largest deal was Quantum Fine Caseworks' 232,000-sf sublease at 3245 Meridian Parkway.
Investor and user sales also were up last year, to 2.5 million sf and 1.6 million sf, respectively. The most notable Broward County industrial sale was the $6.5-million sale of the 276,000-sf warehouse distribution building at 5701 N.W. 94 Ave. to Gray Capital LLC.
Despite 8.9 million sf of combined leasing and sales activity last year, the overall vacancy rate in the Broward industrial market was up to 9.3% at the end of 2003, compared with 8.6% a year earlier, partly due to more than 727,000 sf of new construction that sits vacant. One submarket experienced a drop in vacancy from the end of 2002 to the same time last year. The Southeast Broward submarket's vacancy rate fell to 7.9% from 9.6%, with more than 619,000 sf of leasing activity there. However, since this submarket is the county's smallest, with 8.5 million sf, its good news does not have a huge impact on the overall market.
The report also shows that the county's overall absorption dropped from 2002 to 2003; the inventory increased from 81.6 million sf at year-end 2002 to 84 million sf at the end of last year due mainly to the construction deliveries in the North Broward submarket; the pure warehouse distribution average asking rate was stable at $5.82 per sf at the end of 2003; and, at year-end 2003, 1.1 million sf of space was under construction in the county, while less than 15% of it was pre-leased.
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