The Orange County industrial market encompasses just more than 240 million square feet. In the first quarter, more than 4.5 million square feet were sold or leased.
Availability rose, however, as 1 million square feet of industrial construction were completed. Another 1.6 million square feet were under construction at the end of the quarter.
Availability Rates
In the first quarter, the Orange County industrial availability rose to 6.36%, from 5.90% at the end of 1999. Negative absorption in the research and development sector caused the availability for that construction type to increase from 6.63% to 10.44%. The manufacturing and warehouse market experienced positive absorption in the first quarter, bringing the availability rate for that product type down to 5.49% from 5.75% in the fourth quarter.
Gross Activity
The year started strong with nearly 4.6 million square feet of industrial space sold or leased in the first quarter. The greatest amount of total leasing and total sales activity for the first quarter took place in the North Orange County submarket. North Orange County accounted for more than 46% of the total M & W; activity with nearly 1.7 million square feet being leased or sold in the first quarter. The Airport Area accounted for more than one-third of the R & D; sales and leases in the first quarter, with 351,773 square feet of activity.
Construction
The industrial market saw the delivery of 15 buildings, the majority of which were M & W-type; projects. Currently, there are 42 industrial projects under construction totaling just more than 1.6 million square feet. This is a decline in the construction activity, continuing a trend that started in the second quarter of 1999. However, despite the tightening supply of buildable, entitled land, there are another 47 projects stacked up in the planning stages that, if built, will add more than 2.8 million square feet to the Orange County industrial base.
