The Cleveland-area industrial market made history in the first quarter of 2019 … again. According to the latest research from Newmark Knight Frank, the industrial vacancy rate in the Cleveland market dropped to 5.2 percent during the quarter, an all-time low.
This isn’t overly surprising. The Cleveland industrial market has been hitting vacancy lows at a steady clip these days as companies target this Midwest city for new warehouses and distribution centers.
How strong is the Cleveland industrial market today? Consider this statistic from Newmark Knight Frank: 10 years ago, the industrial vacancy rate in Cleveland stood at 10.1 percent.
The vacancy rate in the first quarter of this year represents a drop of 40 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2018. Helping the market reach this milestone was 215,991 square feet of positive absorption in the first quarter, the fourth consecutive quarter of positive absorption for the Cleveland market. In the 37 quarters since the start of 2010, only seven have seen negative industrial absorption.
The tightest submarket in the region was the Southwest, which had a 2.8 percent vacancy rate in the first quarter of the year.
