PARSIPPANY, NJ-The industrial market is on the way back to health, with New Jersey acting as one of the leaders, according to new quarterly research from Colliers International. The state was among several markets reporting a spike in absorption during the fourth quarter, and trends point toward continued recovery as warehouse space demand is expected to rise. Other regions such as Charleston, SC; Cincinnati; Phoenix; and Savannah, GA also saw positive absorption.

“Global trade has been picking up,” Colliers chief economist-USA Ross J. Moore tells GlobeSt.com. “All of the port markets are doing better.” Northern New Jersey saw 847,000 square feet absorbed in the fourth quarter, and a total of two million square feet absorbed for all of 2010. Central New Jersey reported a 1.9-million-square-foot absorption figure in the fourth quarter for a total of 1.8 million square feet for the year. “Central New Jersey did have a better quarter than Northern, which is somewhat unusual,” Moore observes. “Central New Jersey is more of a distribution and warehousing hub, versus Northern New Jersey, which supports New York City.”

The positive trend should continue both nationally and for the state. Collliers predicts that if national gross domestic product improves by 3% this year, as some economists predict, the industrial market could generate as much as 200 million square feet of positive absorption for the year. “We’re more bullish on the industrial market than any other property,” Moore says.