Vacancies up in Tulsa warehouses and factories
February 22, 2012
In the Tulsa area, warehouses and factories are 12.3% vacant as reported by a new study.
This figure is a bit higher than the 11% seen in 2010, however, author of the report Jamie Hill issued by CB Richard Ellis stated the vacancy is the highest the company has seen from the beginning of issuing this report.
The economy is one of the factors; however, one event was at the root of around 1.2 million square feet of industrial space being available.
Hill stated, “When the Zeledyne glass plant closed, the market had to take in 1.4 million square feet.” In southeast Tulsa, generally, facilities that are created for manufacturing do not sit empty long and finding vacancies is often difficult. “We’re finding that in many spaces, there are multiple tenants looking at the same space,” Hill stated. He does expect more manufacturing buildings to be under construction with at this time a 42,000 square foot building in progress at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa.
The most common buildings to be vacant are bulk warehouses mainly the large and older ones. The reason is that most companies are looking for less support columns and deeper loading spaces.
In the Tulsa area, the aerospace and energy industries have kept the buildings full as well as the market stable. Even though the figure of vacancies is the highest seen in more than ten years, this figure out performed the national average of 16% as reported in a study by CBRE Econometric Advisors. The stability made rental rates stay flat only increasing a bit over the last year to $4.78 per square foot.