Key Takeaways

• Coming off a strong year of occupancy gains, Atlanta's industrial market begins 2019 with a modest 938,000 square feet of space absorbed.
• Because of the unusually slow start, and taking into account the 4.6 million square feet of space delivered, the industrial vacancy rate increased 50 basis points (0.5%) from last quarter.
• Once again, South Atlanta was the most positive industrial submarket of the quarter accounting for just under 90% of the net total market absorption. Additionally, most of the leasing activity in Q1 took place here.
• As mentioned, industrial deliveries reached 4.6 million square feet this quarter. Core5's Northeast 85 Logistics Center and TPA Group's Palmetto Logistics Center were the largest buildings added to inventory; both are over 1 million square feet.
• Despite the modest activity, Atlanta's average industrial warehouse rate increased by its largest quarterly margin in fourteen years.
• Industrial absorption for 2019 was anticipated to be more retrained compared to previous years. Q1's moderate gains support this.

Atlanta Industrial Market

With the exception of Atlanta's record year of industrial absorption in 2017, more often than not the market begins the year slowly, with occupancy gains totaling more in the back half of a year than the first half. This continues to be the case when looking at statistics for Atlanta's industrial market in the first quarter This time around, however, the positive activity seems to be unusually lower than what has been normal during this cycle's expansion. Under 1 million square feet of positive net absorption occurred in Q1 which is the lowest occupancy gain tallied in the first three months of the year since 2012.