2013 warehouse vacancy rate lowest since 2006, report says

Hawaii’s economic expansion fueled largely by tourism and construction continues to benefit a piece of the local real estate market — warehouse property — that is a key to supplying the growing industries.

A report released for publication today by commercial real estate firm Colliers International said the vacancy rate for warehouse space on Oahu declined last year to 2.7 percent from 3.8 percent the year before.

The drop was the second in two years and put last year’s vacancy level at its lowest since 2006, when the vacancy rate was 2.3 percent.

Colliers said the low vacancy level is making it difficult for some industrial companies to find suitable spaces as rents rise modestly.

"Tightened market conditions are fueling competition for limited warehouse space," the report said.

The pickup in construction and tourism is helping boost demand for warehouse space from contractors, wholesalers and manufacturers — parts of the industrial business sector that state tax collections show have reached roughly $15 billion in revenue for each of the last two years compared with $14 billion in 2011 and between $12 billion and $13 billion in each of the three years before that.

Colliers also said other big reasons for falling warehouse vacancies are moves by the state to reclaim warehouse property at Sand Island and Honolulu Airport to expand Honolulu Harbor and airport facilities.

"The relocation of tenants to private-sector industrial properties boosted demand throughout the island for warehouse space," the report said.

Available warehouse space for lease on Oahu fell last year to about 250 properties. That’s down from about 325 the year before and a recent peak of about 450 in 2010. But the inventory last year was still well above the recent low of about 50 properties from 2004 to 2006.

In total there was about 1.1 million square feet of warehouse space available for lease out of 40.4 million square feet in the market, according to Colliers.

The roughly 1 percentage point drop in the vacancy rate last year represented 375,959 square feet of additional warehouse space filled by tenants.

Low vacancies have prompted landlords to increase rental rates for available space. Colliers said the average monthly base rent sought by landlords rose to 99 cents per square foot last year, up from 96 cents the year before and 92 cents in 2011. The recent peak was $1.30 in 2007 after developers built a significant number of new warehouse buildings, for which they can get a higher price.

Colliers said it doesn’t expect any new major warehouse construction this year because rents would have to be more than $1.30 a square foot to make such projects financially feasible. The report projects that asking rents could rise 15 percent by 2015 as the warehouse vacancy rate falls below 2.3 percent by the end of this year.