The story in West Michigan’s industrial market? NAI Wisinski says it’s all about high demand and limited supply.
And in its 2018 fourth quarter West Michigan industrial report, NAI Wisinski says that this trend will remain throughout 2019. Simply put, the supply of modern industrial space through the West Michigan region is not keeping up with the demand for this space.
The low industrial vacancy rates here tell the story. NAI Wisinski says that in the fourth quarter, the vacancy rate for warehouse buildings stood near 2 percent, while the rate for high-tech flex industrial space was just under 3 percent.
And for manufacturing facilities? The fourth quarter vacancy rate was under 1.5 percent.
You can see, when looking at those numbers, why it’s so difficult for companies to find modern space.
NAI Wisinski says that the construction of new industrial facilities, often on a speculative basis, is helping to ease some of the space crunch. But new construction isn’t yet keeping up with demand in the West Michigan region.
The fourth quarter of 2018 saw plenty of big industrial deals in the West Michigan region. Grand Rapids-based Haviland Enterprises, a local chemicals company, bought a property adjacent to one of its existing facilities for an expansion. The building at 2180 Avastar Parkway NW in Walker, Michigan, is 107,818 square feet and was purchased from Buchanan Investments.
Function Beauty, a maker of haircare products, plans to open a manufacturing center at 6610 Patterson Ave. SE. in Grand Rapids. The new building will serve as a production and call center and is expected to create 150 jobs.
