Oahu’s warehouse need edged out supply in 2016

Demand beat out supply in Oahu’s industrial real estate market for a fifth straight year in 2016, according to a recent report that said companies in need of warehouse space here face fewer options and higher prices.

The report from commercial real estate firm Colliers International said the vacancy rate for warehouse space on the island dipped to 1.6 percent at the end of last year from 1.65 percent at the end of 2015.

The reduction was small, representing 64,582 square feet more space filled than emptied last year. That’s about the size of the Bed Bath & Beyond store at Pearlridge Center. Yet the dip continues to give more leverage to landlords in a market that has tightened from a 4.78 percent vacancy rate in 2011.

Average monthly rent per square foot of warehouse space being asked by landlords was $1.21 last year, up from $1.13 the year before. The lowest average price over at least the past decade was 92 cents in 2011, according to Colliers.

“After five consecutive years of declining vacancy rates and rapidly rising rental rates, the Oahu industrial market is not likely to see a reprieve until development activity adds much needed inventory,” the report said.

Colliers said some developers are planning to build warehouse space for lease in West Oahu, where land is less expensive, though the anticipated projects won’t reduce the vacancy rate by much.

To bring down the vacancy rate by 1 percentage point would take 400,000 square feet of warehouse space, the report said.

“A few speculative new developments will do little to alleviate the pent-up demand that the market has generated,” Alika Cosner, an industrial property broker with Colliers, said in the report.

The Colliers report covers about 1,800 warehouse buildings totaling 40 million square feet, of which 638,535 square feet was available for lease at the end of last year.

The company projected that the vacancy rate will remain near 2 percent this year, while asking rents are forecast to rise by 7 percent to 10 percent.

“Colliers anticipates that tight market conditions will persist for 2017 as industrial warehouse tenants will continue to find it challenging to expand or relocate their businesses,” the report said.