"While cost cutting and space consolidation efforts among automotive-related companies has hurt demand, non-automotive companies have made up the bulk of tenants leasing space and have kept the industrial market stable," Grubb & Ellis reports.

The industrial vacancy rate was steady over the previous quarter, increasing only 10 basis points to 11.2% for the overall market, meaning about 40 million sf is available.

Positive absorption -- 335,621 sf -- was reported in the Macomb County submarket, where the vacancy rate declined 90 basis points to 7.8%. The southern Wayne County submarket also had a positive absorption of 179,443 sf. Most of the activity in southern Wayne County was caused by transportation companies adding space, such as Central States Trucking's lease of 179,443 sf at Airport Park in Romulus.