Monthly Download | Construction Update | August 2017

As we near the end of the 3rd Quarter, our industrial market is experiencing 21 million square feet in construction activity, with nearly 3.2 million square feet in new construction starts this quarter alone. The Lehigh Valley and Central Pennsylvania submarkets are leading this activity with 8.8 and 7.3 million square feet of development respectively. The I-81 and Southern New Jersey submarkets are also contributing 2.5 million square feet each of current construction.

As of today, 75% of the total construction activity is speculative. The Lehigh Valley submarket is leading the way in speculative construction, with 44% of all speculative projects. 86% of the Lehigh Valley set is considered speculative. The I-81 Corridor is contributing another 26%. While Central Pennsylvania is only about 19% of all speculative projects, the average size of speculative projects in Central Pennsylvania is 867,000 square feet, almost 250,000 square feet larger than the Lehigh Valley, with the second largest average size of 630,000 square feet.

There are currently six speculative projects with footprints in excess of one million square feet throughout the region. Two of those projects reside in the Harrisburg West sub-cluster of Central Pennsylvania. The remaining four reside in the Lehigh Valley submarket. Most of these large speculative projects began prior to Q3 2017. Only one, Duke’s project in Easton, broke ground in Q3. The majority of these large projects are expected to be delivered before the end of 2017 or Q1 2018. In addition to speculative projects, there are currently three large build to suit projects underway across the market. Only one of these projects began construction in Q3 2017, which is Syncreon’s recently signed million footer in Carlisle, PA. That project represents the fourth, one million square foot project in the Harrisburg West sub-cluster. The Whirlpool built-to-suit, Matrix’s speculative United Business Park Lot 6, and NorthPoint’s speculative Greencastle Intermodal Park will represent nearly 4.5 million square feet that will be delivered in the Central Pennsylvania submarket by the end of Q2 2018. These deliveries will push Central Pennsylvania’s standing stock well over 130 million square feet.

Other notable large scale developments include Dermody’s recently acquired, LogistiCenter at Midway with their other 1 million square foot built-to-suit at LogistiCenter at Logan in Gloucester County, New Jersey. In total, Dermody is leading developer construction activity with 2.5 million square feet. NorthPoint also remains one of the market’s most active developers with 2.3 million currently under construction. Market mainstays Liberty Property Trust, Duke Realty and Mericle also remain active with 2.2, 1.8 and 1.4 million square feet under construction respectively.

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Any questions regarding the Eastern Pennsylvania market please contact us at 717.695.3840 or 610.400.0499.