Amazon alone helped to push down the industrial vacancy rate in Orange County even further. According to a recent market report from Newmark Knight Frank, Amazon signed nearly 1 million square feet of industrial leases in 2019, helping to keep the industrial vacancy rate below 4% for the 25^th consecutive quarter.

"Amazon had a tremendous impact on the overall industrial market in 2019, having finalized nearly 1 million square feet of leases in three transactions alone during the calendar year," Jeff Read, executive managing director at NKF, tells GlobeSt.com. "Not surprisingly, Amazon was responsible for a majority of the overall absorption for the year as they execute on their push to satisfy "last-mile" distribution to consumers in mature infill markets like Orange County. Based upon multiple pending transactions, we anticipate that Amazon will have a similar impact on industrial absorption in 2020 as well."

It isn't only Amazon. Ecommerce companies overall are driving the industrial leasing activity in Orange County; however, they aren't the only players for industrial, particularly in smaller size ranges. "Generally speaking, yes, ecommerce-oriented users made up the majority of activity throughout the year, across all size ranges," Read says. "While Amazon and other large corporate users impacted the market for buildings in the size range 50,000 square feet and greater, we saw significant activity from smaller, "mom and pop" ecommerce businesses in the size range 25,000 square feet and smaller."