The Northeast Atlanta, South Atlanta and Stone Mountain submarkets showed positive net absorption during the third quarter, although the overall industrial market gave back more than 554,000 sf during those three months, Colliers figures show. A number of new occupancies expected in the fourth quarter should return market absorption to 1 million sf for the year, well below the 11 million sf recorded throughout 2007.

"The struggling economy continues to plague Atlanta's industrial market," Scott Amoson, Colliers' local research director, stated in the report. "Volatility in the housing industry has had the greatest impact on industrial space in Atlanta as spaces once filled by lumber warehousers, textile manufacturers and home builders continue to come back to the market."

Even with all the local housing fallout and near-record statewide job losses in September, Atlanta had its best industrial leasing quarter in the last year and a half during the third quarter, with 5.3 million sf of deals completed. Among the largest was a 542,500-sf lease by ProLogis to JVC at 900 Riverside Pkwy., along Interstate 20 West in Fulton County. The deal represents more than half of the total 946,000 sf leased in eight transactions during the third quarter by Denver-based ProLogis, the Atlanta area's biggest industrial landlord.