The Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS, the largest commercial REALTOR association in the country, released its Q2 2015 Industrial Brief on industrial market trend statistics for 22 Atlanta Industrial Sub Markets. Industrial Brief, is compiled by data from Xceligent, a leading provider of verified commercial real estate information.    

LABOR:According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate dropped 1.5 percentage points from 7.6% in July 2014 to 6.1% in July 2015.  85,000 jobs were created in the Atlanta metropolitan statistical area over the past year.  Industrial using jobs (industries include manufacturing and trade transportation and utilities) increased 21,200 from July 2014 to July 2015.

ABSORPTION: The Atlanta metro absorbed over 2.3 million square feet (msf) during the third quarter of 2015.  The industrial market has absorbed over 10.2 msf during the first nine months of 2015.  

VACANCY: Due to continued positive absorption, the overall vacancy rate has fallen from 9.1 % in Q2 2015 to 8.9% at the close of third quarter 2015. Industrial vacancy rates dropped substantially from 11.1% in Q3 2014.The Northeast submarket entertained the most absorption for third quarter with 847,605 sf absorbed. The South submarket reflected the second largest absorption total with 578,148 SF of total absorption during third quarter 2015.
CONSTRUCTION:Developers continue to build as demand for industrial product strengthens. There are currently 26 buildings totaling over 13.8 msf under construction.  Through third quarter 2015, 17 buildings totaling 6.7 msf have been completed.

TOP LEASE TRANSACTIONS: Major occupiers of space Atlanta Pallet Rack, DSC Logistics, Ricoh Electronics, Home Depot, Amazon.com, Kroger and Coloplast.

A Word from ACBR Member, Pat Murphy: “Atlanta’s industrial market was a little late to recover relative to other similar markets. But strong demand has our development community in full swing with more than 25 buildings comprising 13.8 million square feet currently under construction. Nearly every submarket is seeing new product, and while big boxes dominate, there is also a fair number of smaller distribution buildings coming on line to meet the high demand reflected in record lease rates.”