The John Wayne Airport area accounts for nearly a third of Orange County’s total industrial space, with about 2,020 industrial buildings combining for 69 million square feet.
The airport area also is home to close to half of the county’s total office space, with 686 buildings totaling more than 8.8 million square feet.
The airport area is more than double the size of its neighboring South Orange County submarket, which consists of 32.6 million square feet of industrial space and 2.8 million square feet for offices.
Fourth-quarter average asking lease rates for industrial space in the airport area continued to decline, but not as dramatically as in previous quarters.
In the fourth quarter, the average monthly asking rent shed one cent to 58 cents per square foot. It remained 13% lower than the fourth quarter of 2009.
The average lease rate for office space also continued to decline. It now stands at $2.05 per square foot per month, down two cents from the third quarter and 26 cents below a year earlier.
Price cuts have drawn increased interest in industrial and office space.
Industrial vacancy level fell to 4.3% in the fourth quarter from 4.9% in the third quarter and 5% a year earlier.
The office vacancy rate declined to 18.7% from 19% in the third quarter and 19.5% a year earlier.
The lower vacancy levels were reflected in a healthy net absorption in the fourth quarter.
The industrial market generated more than 445,000 square feet of positive net absorption, the majority of which occurred in the manufacturing and warehouse sector.
The office market posted 164,646 square feet of positive net absorption, bringing the year-to-date total to a net gain of 368,188 square feet.
Schneider is a senior associate in the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis.
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Net Absorption, Rates, etc. is provided in a Adobe Reader .pdf print-friendly file.
