It became evident in late 2011 that Calgary was one of the top performing industrial markets in North and South America, says commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
The market had positive absorption – the change in occupied space – of almost one million square feet last year. The year ended with a vacancy rate of 4.7 per cent, which was down from 4.9 per cent at the end of 2010. The vacancy rate has steadily declined since the peak of about 6.2 per cent in late 2009.
“Calgary’s industrial market is firing on all cylinders right now. A vital economic engine in the city even throughout the recession, our market is being fueled primarily by the expansion and new entrants of logistics operations and oil and gas service providers,” says Cushman & Wakefield.
The firm says developers began to prepare and started construction on new supply in 2011, resulting in eight speculative projects now planned for 2012 or 2013 completion, totalling about 3.343 million square feet.
“We have not seen this amount of new construction in the pipeline in Calgary since 2008.”
It says there’s another 25 projects that are in the planning stages.
