Houston industrial market ends 2020 on high note

The Houston metro saw a significant uptick in absorption as 2020 came to an end, according to Transwestern. Over 7.0 million square feet was delivered to the market, with nearly 5.0 million squre feet pre-leased, bringing the fourth quarter absorption figure to 7.9 million square feet and annual absorption to 17.8 million square feet.

In addition to pre-leased deliveries such as Ross Distribution Center (2.2 million square feet, 31207 Kingsland Blvd.) and Medline (1.3 million square feet, 29895 Hwy. 90) in the Katy/Far West submarket, several other large leases took place across the market, such as Dunavant signing a 784,000-square-foot lease and Costway’s 400,000-square-foot lease. Despite the strong quarterly absorption that took place, direct vacancy still increased a modest 10 basis points to 8 percent during the period, resulting in a year-over-year increase of 90 basis points. Direct vacancy continues to face upward pressure as more than 9.2 million square feet remain