Absorption in the industrial market hit a four-year high in the Detroit market last year, according to the fourth quarter 2021 industrial report released by Newmark.
Last year, net absorption in the Detroit market industrial sector totaled 7.4 million square feet. The market hadn’t seen such a high level of absorption since 2017.
In more good news, Newmark reported that the Detroit industrial market vacancy rate fell 20 basis points in the fourth quarter of last year, dropping to 4 percent. Just more than 2.7 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed in the Detroit market during the last quarter of 2021.
End users again prefered bulk warehouse facilities. Newmark says that 73 percent of the 7.4 million square feet absorbed in 2021 in the Detroit market ws in bulk warehouse facilities.
None of this is overly surprising. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the entire country hard. But industrial is one commercial sector that has thrived during the last nearly two years. Consumers were boosting their online shopping before the pandemic hit. COVID-19, though, has only pushed consumers to shop more online as many remain wary of shopping in person.
This has forced companies to invest more heavily in warehouses across the country, a way for them to deliver products to their customers in less time. This has pumped up the industrial market in a big way throughout the pandemic.
And the future of industrial? In both Detroit and across the country, it looks bright. CRE professionals are predicting that 2022 should be yet another big year for this sector, even if the pandemic slowly loosens its hold on the country.
