South Florida’s industrial market held steady for another consecutive quarter, and warehouse landlords are not easing up one bit.
In Miami-Dade and Broward counties, asking rents jumped by double digits year-over-year, and Palm Beach County also experienced some rental growth in the industrial sector, according to a CBRE second quarter report.
The rise in rents is largely fueled by steady demand from industrial tenants that are keeping at or below 3 percent across the tri-county region.
Miami-Dade County
In the second quarter, the average asking rent hit $14.50 a square foot, a 22 percent jump compared to the same period last year, according to the report. The Miami International Airport/Doral submarket remains the most expensive for the entire county, where landlords are asking for an average of $18 a square foot, and some tenants are signing deals above $20 a square foot.
The vacancy rate narrowed a little bit to 3.1 percent compared to 3.6 percent during the previous quarter. Amazon and Fedex fueled Miami-Dade’s net absorption of 2.2 million square feet in the second quarter.
Among the second quarter’s notable tenant signings was Triton Logistics pre-leasing an entire 192,000-square-foot warehouse under construction in Hialeah’s Countyline Corporate Park.
A joint venture between Butters Construction & Development and Greystar scored its second tenant at the nearly completed Miami Midway Park in northwest Miami-Dade. GLB Trucking signed for 52,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Broward County
Industrial landlords in Broward are also jacking up prices. In the second quarter, the average asking rent shot up by 21 percent to a little more than $15 a square foot compared to the same period last year. Tenants are paying the most in the Sunrise submarket where the average asking rent hit $16.56 a square foot and the vacancy rate was 1 percent, the lowest in all of South Florida.
Broward’s overall vacancy rate in the second quarter was 2.6 percent compared to 2.7 percent during the previous quarter. The county had a net absorption of 405,000 square feet, a decline of about 30 percent compared to the first three months of the year.
One of the biggest signings of the second quarter occurred in Weston. Specialized Freight Carriers, a logistics provider, moved into a 134,400-square-foot warehouse at Weston Commerce Park.
Palm Beach County
The average asking rent in Palm Beach County rose to nearly $15.50 a square foot during the second quarter, about a 10 percent rise compared to the same period last year. The county’s overall vacancy rate held steady at 2.9 percent, about the same as the previous quarter.
Net absorption hit 114,016 square feet in the second quarter, nearly matching the same total as the first quarter of the year, the report shows.
The largest move-in during the second quarter was gun maker Century International Arms leasing 81,000 square feet at Southern Way Business Center in West Palm Beach.