Industrial vacancies continue to mount

The problems of the manufacturing and wholesale distribution sectors of the U.S. economy continued to weigh heavily upon the demand for industrial space during the final months of 2001. The availability rate for industrial space increased from 9.5 percent during the third quarter of the year to 10.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

That tally was 2.5 percent higher than the quarter ending 2000, according to CB Richard Ellis, Glen Allen, Va. The firm surveys the supply of available space in manufacturing plants and warehouse buildings of 100,000 square feet or more.

Vacancy rates for industrial space in the last quarter of 2001 ranged from a low of 1.8 percent in Albuquerque, N.M., to a high of 24.7 percent in the Jacksonville, Fla., metropolitan area.