New Mexico

By Alex Pulliam, Land & Industrial Advisor, NAI SunVista It’s been a long time coming. Albuquerque hasn’t built speculative distribution warehouses in nearly two decades. However, the recent strength of the market is giving developers confidence to break ground – and investors are paying attention.  Industrial activity has been lively, thanks to accelerated macro trends from the pandemic, as well as the legalization of recreational cannabis. Albuquerque’s industrial vacancy rates have remained below 1 percent for over two quarters. Prior to that, vacancy rates hovered around a then “historic low” in the 2 percent range since September 2019. The demand from users has continued to climb and tenants are facing lease rate increases.  While needing more speculative warehouses should be a matter of basic economics, it is not always easy to build in a tertiary market that lacks the memory of growth. Historically, Albuquerque would only secure a few 50,000-square-foot users per year, along with the occasional 100,000-plus-square-foot user. This deterred developers from taking a chance on new construction. But times are changing. Large tenants are taking note of Albuquerque’s access, affordability and workforce, while existing users are seeking modern buildings for efficiency and growth.  These factors, combined with rental rate …