Industrial

By Justin Brown, director of research, Cushman & Wakefield | Grant Street Associates Inc. While the last year has been extremely challenging, one bright spot within Pittsburgh’s commercial real estate markets has been the industrial sector, the resiliency of which cannot be overstated. Consistent increases in asking rents, flat vacancy rates and positive levels of absorption have been the norms for the past few quarters. Like many metros, the Pittsburgh industrial market saw very strong absorption in the fourth quarter of last year — about 391,000 square feet, to be exact. Net absorption slid to approximately 92,000 square feet in the first quarter of this year, but there rem ains ample reason to believe that leasing activity will stay steady, if not improve, in the coming months. Much of the new leasing activity has been concentrated within the airport corridor. This region features both considerable land for new development and exceptional access to key pieces of infrastructure, making it popular with tenants and landlords alike. Currently, there is approximately 1.8 million square feet of industrial space under construction throughout the metro, with more than half of those projects (about 1 million square feet) concentrated in the airport corridor. The average …