Industry experts in the Michigan city of Holland had good news for those gathered at an annual forecast luncheon. Commercial real estate is expected to continue on its “slow and steady climb into 2013.”
According to Tom Postma, of Colliers International, over the past three years, 3.5 million square feet of industrial space has been leased, renewed or sold.
“Industry rules in Ottawa County,” he said.
Other good news for real estate investors is that the industrial vacancy rate has been falling since 2008. This trend is expected to continue through this year.
Forecasters are also predicting that demand for vacant land will increase due to a lack of pre-existing industrial space.
K.C. Conway, the executive managing director for real estate analytics at Collier International said he thought 2013 was going to be “a lucky year.”
Multi-tenant commercial buildings that had several vacancies at the beginning of 2012 are now fully occupied or are approaching full occupancy, according to Drew Durham an associate in Colliers commercial real estate division.
Commercial landlords appear more willing to renovate properties to attract new tenants and this is expected to continue.
In the retail sector several prime spaces have recently been rented reversing the trend of closures. However, the office market is expected to remain soft.
This improvement in the market goes hand in hand with an improving local economy. The unemployment rate has dropped while, even more encouragingly, ten thousand jobs have been created in the Holland area over the past two years.
Approximately three-quarters of these new jobs have been in the manufacturing sector.
In a recent economic development survey, 72 per cent of companies reported that sales had increased. Three-quarters of respondents stated they expected their companies to grow in the next three years.
