"Since basically 2005, when you compare properties that have asking lease rates in two consecutive quarters, there's been a dynamic where we've been seeing landlords changing prices on existing suites and changing them up, asking for more quarter to quarter," Caroll explains. "These last two quarters we actually saw same properties have decreases in asking lease rates." The caveat to this, he continues, is the similar dynamic which continues to be common in older, non-state-of-the-art flex properties. "[These properties] are coming under increasing pressure and frequently are not able to accommodate the needs of modern light industrial operations," he says.

According to RBJ's numbers, 50% of the vacant industrial space is located in seven buildings built before, roughly, 1943. With no new construction in the pipeline, this should help lower vacancy rates, but the down-side comes from an estimation based on data from the Institute for Supply Management, which shows that waning business confidence is causing managers to reduce their inventory and, thus, their need for space during the downturn. These competing factors will most likely cause a leveling of vacancy, for better or worse.

Carroll notes an important distinction from those assumptions. "The greater Boston market, when you take a look at those macro-economic market numbers, [those numbers are] going to be affecting, more dramatically, the larger markets--like the Chicagos, the Houstons, the Atlantas--that have over one billion sf of warehouse space. Boston is a very regional distribution market, so the relatively compact inventory of 56 million sf that we have in Boston is less susceptible to general economic trends." With these mitigating factors in mind, Carroll still believes Boston is not heading into a period of dramatic growth in the expansion of the use of warehouse space.