Map: Industrial Submarkets

• General Services Administration negotiated the lease of 76,800 square feet of Cecil County industrial space at 4 Center Drive to store medical supplies in a regional consolidation move for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Health and Human Services is consolidating four of its storage locations in the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas under one roof. The lease brings GSA's total occupancy up to 153,600 square feet at the property.
• Sephora, the cosmetics and beauty chain, signed a two year, 70,133-square-foot lease at 4611 Mercedes Dr in the Riverside Business Park in Belcamp, MD. The building is across the street from Sephora's current Maryland distribution center, also on Mercedes Drive.
• Brawner Builders Inc. will house its new headquarters in a 58,000-square-foot building it recently bought for $3.4 million in Hunt Valley. Brawner intends to consolidate multiple locations and establish its corporate headquarters into 23,000-square-feet of space in the building by the first quarter of 2012.

Local Warehouse Market Now on the Move

In the fourth quarter, positive net absorption of warehouse space in the Baltimore area totaled 622,663 square feet (sf). The largest increases were experienced in the Harford/Cecil submarket (+471,626 sf), Baltimore City (+276,024 sf), and the BW Corridor (+274,489 sf). Several submarkets experienced negative net absorption for the quarter including Baltimore County East (-243,862 sf.) and Woodlawn/Catonsville (-47,292 sf). In 2011, net absorption of warehouse space in the Baltimore region totaled -89,555 sf, which means that the fourth quarter represented a radical departure from trend. The direct vacancy rate for the regional warehouse market stood at 9.7 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 9.4 percent in the third quarter, but down from 10.1 percent the same time last year.

Trends were reversed in the flex industrial market. The flex industrial market in the Baltimore area posted quarterly net absorption of -32,475 sf. For the year, net absorption totaled 90,583 sf. Three markets stood out with respect to positive net absorption during the year's final quarter: Annapolis (39,005 sf.), Arbutus (33,948 sf), and Harford/Cecil (26,192 sf). However, the performance of these submarkets was more than offset by negative net absorption in Baltimore City (-73,862 sf) and the BW Corridor (-32,447 sf.). The Baltimore area flex industrial market direct vacancy rate for the fourth quarter was 10.2 percent, unchanged from both the previous quarter and the same time one year ago.

Notable Transactions
Flex Lease

Flex Sale

Warehouse Lease

Warehouse Sale

(r) Renewal
(e) Renewal & Expansion

* All information furnished regarding property for sale, rent, exchange or financing is from sources deemed reliable. No representation is made as to the accuracy thereof and all such information is submitted subject to errors, omissions, or changes in conditions, prior sale, lease or withdrawal without notice. All information should be verified to the satisfaction of the person relying thereon. Portions of the base statistics are from CoStar Property data. Data as of 12/2011.

Flex

Above: Baltimore City and the BW Corridor saw the substantial decreases in absorption while Baltimore County East and Harford/Cecil County remained virtually unchanged.

Warehouse

Above:The Harford/Cecil County submarket saw a positive absorption of 471,626 sf, more than double the absorption rates of Baltimore City and the BW Corridor combined..

Historical Vacancy Rates

Click on Graphs to Enlarge

Above:Although the overalll vacancy rate dipped to 10.19 percent, the availability rate remains high at 14.72 percent for the area. Though this number has improved since mid-year 2010 (18 percent), it indicates there are still a high level of short term tenancies in the market.