DETROIT—The Detroit region's industrial market continues to be one of the top performers in the US. The vacancy rate has hit historic lows, and construction activity remains at record levels with no sign of slowing down, according to Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, which just released its first quarter industrial trends data.

Metro Detroit's industrial market vacancy rate fell 20 bps to 5.3% as just over 1.5 million square feet was absorbed. Completed build-to-suit construction projects for Magna Seating of America, Inc., Louca Mold, Autoneum and CW Bearing USA Inc. accounted for nearly 25% of overall net absorption. And developers have 34 major projects comprising 6.8 million square feet of new construction underway. That's a big jump over last quarter, when 5.8 million square feet was under construction. during the previous quarter. T

The largest project currently underway is the Livonia Corporate Center, which will bring one million square feet of speculative space to the Western Wayne County submarket. Elsewhere, three new major build-to-suit projects are going up for CIE Automotive in Macomb County, Hutchinson Automotive in Southeast Oakland County and for Oerlikon in Western Wayne.

“Developers continue to add inventory to meet user demand in the industrial market,” says John DeGroot, research director of NGKF's Detroit office. “During the first quarter, both speculative development and build-to-suit construction starts grew by 30%. By the end of 2017, new construction is likely to grow to at least eight million square feet as more projects move from the planning stage.”