Industrial vacancy rate decreases year-to-year

The area industrial vacancy rate dropped to 5.6 percent after registering at 6.8 percent in the same quarter last year, the largest second-quarter vacancy rate decrease. The retail industry also saw a decrease, but the office arena increased slightly, according to the latest Xceligent commercial real estate report.

The Market Trends report, released yesterday and certified by local board members, covers Springfield, Strafford, Rogersville, Ozark, Nixa, Republic and Willard.

Industrial
Of the 31.5 million square feet of industrial inventory in the market, 1.8 million square feet was vacant during the second quarter, according to the report

Second-quarter net industrial absorption totaled 93.5 million square feet, pushing year-to-date absorption to 332.3 million square feet.

The largest occupancy change in the second quarter came via Prime Inc., which filled 70,284 square feet of property after its purchase of the  former DeGraffenreid & Sons pickle plant at 2848 N. Le Compte Road, according to the report.

Retail
The retail vacancy rate was roughly flat, registering at 5 percent, down from 5.3 percent in second-quarter 2012.

Of the 16.9 million square feet of local inventory, 844,458 square feet was vacant during the second quarter, according to Xceligent.

Retail absorption was recorded at 33,158 square feet, bringing the yearly total to nearly 40,000 square feet.

Office
The area office vacancy rate rose two-tenths of a point to 10.5 percent in the second quarter.

The local rate compared favorably to the U.S. average of 15.7 percent, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

During the second quarter, 659,904 square feet of the 6.3 million square feet of office inventory in the Springfield-are market was vacant.

Though Nixa's vacancy rate decreased to 20.1 percent from 26.3 percent in the same quarter a year ago, it registered nearly twice as high as the next highest vacancy rate in the office market, according to the report.