Developers and builders were busy throughout 2015, adding 2.8 million new multifamily units alone during the year, according to the latest research from CBRE.
The CBRE Commercial Real Estate Outlook for 2016 for Kansas City contained plenty of good news, with Mike Klamm, managing director of the company’s Kansas City office, saying that 2015 ranked as a particularly strong year for commercial real estate.
“2015 was a tremendous year for the CBRE Kansas City office, the commercial real estate market and Kansas City at large,” Klamm said. “The city has a tremendously diverse economy.”
Some of the good news from the report? The Kansas City multifamil market enjoyed a total sales volume of more than $1 billion in 2015, while occupancy rates increased year-over-year in the office, industrial and retail markets.
The Kansas Cit office sector saw its vacancy rate drop to 14.7 percent as of the end of 2015, while the retail sector’s vacancy rate fell to 7.7 percent.
The Kansas City industrial market is strong, too, with CBRE reporting that more than 8.1 million square feet of speculative space broke ground in the area’s industrial market in 2015. The market ended the year with a vacancy rate of 4.9 percent, their lowest level since 2000.
According to CBRE, 16 industrial projects reached completion in 2016, totaling nearly 4 million square feet. Of these projects, 10 were speculative, totaling more than 3 million square feet. About 1.9 percent, or more than 3 million square feet, of this space leased by the end of 2015.
