Madison’s industrial market saw higher vacancy and negative absorption in the second quarter, according to a report by Chris Caulum, vice president of commercial brokerage at Oakbrook Corp. Vacancy rose by 0.5 percentage points to 2.9%, and quarterly absorption turned negative, coming in at -68,500 square feet after first quarter’s +407,000 square feet.
Two outliers had a major effect:
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One of the properties Oakbrook is marketing for sale became vacant as Weir Minerals finished moving its operations out of its former manufacturing and distribution campus totaling 225,000 square feet on the south side of Madison; and
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Sierra Space put its 266,000-square-foot space at the former American Girl building in Middleton on the market for sublease, having never moved in.
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The overall market inventory grew by over 800,000 square feet and now totals 61.8 million square feet. Buildings were completed by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in Verona and Event Essentials in northeast Madison, and an addition for STIHL was finished in Cottage Grove.
Two Class A warehouse buildings are under construction in Deforest:
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Porter Pipe will occupy a 182,000-square-foot building being developed by Dickman Real Estate in the Deforest Business Park; and
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Likewise Partners broke ground on a 138,000-square-foot Class A spec building in the newly-created Madison Logistics Park just north of the airport.
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Average asking rental rates were essentially unchanged.
