The West Orange County industrial submarket started off the year with 637,219 square feet of gross activity, resulting in 47,401 square feet of positive net absorption focused in the manufacturing and warehouse segment.
Activity was driven by C&D Zodiac in Huntington Beach leasing 280,460 square feet of space there, followed by multiple leases in the 40,000- to 90,000-square-foot range.
The positive net absorption came with a decrease in the overall vacancy rate from 1.6% in the fourth quarter to 1.5% at the end of the first quarter. That represented a year-over-year decline of 31.8%.
The availability of space continued to drop, as well, ending the quarter at 4.1%, down from 4.6% in the fourth quarter and from 5.4% in the first quarter of last year.
The overall asking lease rate increased 2 cents, or 3%, from the fourth quarter, ending the first quarter at 68 cents per square foot.
The research and development sector posted an unchanged rate of 75 cents per square foot, while the manufacturing and warehouse sector recorded a rate of 66 cents per square foot, up by 1 cent.
Development activity remains minimal in West Orange County, with no new construction starts or completions occurring in the first quarter.
Analysis provided by CBRE Research
