Hampton Roads absorption rates track positive for office and industrial

CBRE|Hampton Roads is reporting the fourth straight quarter of positive absorption for the office sector.

That’s a good sign since net absorption is a good indicator of a market’s health. It measures the difference between tenant move-ins and move-outs over a period of time, so when it’s positive that means more tenants are moving in.

According to CBRE, the Chesapeake/Greenbrier submarket was the busiest with more than 69,000 square feet of positive absorption in that area, due to a lease of more than 25,000 square feet at both Liberty I and Liberty III.

The region’s strongest-performing office submarket continues to be the Pembroke area of Virginia Beach with a vacancy rate of 6.9 percent. There are several projects under construction there, including the development of Town Center Block 11 in the Pembroke submarket. The overall office market net absorption tracked by CBRE|Hampton Roads was positive 93,946 square feet on a market base of 23.2 million square feet.

CBRE also reports positive absorption for the third straight quarter for the industrial sector. The largest industrial transactions of the second quarter were Eska Graphic Board, which renewed its lease of 152,600 square feet at Diamond Hill Distribution Center in Chesapeake and S-L Distribution Co.’s 30,000-square-foot lease at Bridgeway Commerce Park in Suffolk.

The region’s strongest-performing industrial submarket continues to be the Oyster Point / Middle Peninsula area of Newport News with a vacancy rate of only 2.4 percent. The overall industrial market net absorption tracked by CBRE|Hampton Roads was positive 88,064 square feet on a market base of nearly 77 million square feet.