Click on The Richmond Review, 2nd Quarter 2016 for a summary of commercial real estate activity in Richmond. Highlights include:

·         Richmond is almost out of leasable warehouse space with the vacancy rate at 0.4%, although peak rental rates of over $0.50 from a year ago have dropped 20% to below $0.45.
·         Manufacturing space is also in short supply with a vacancy rate of 1.6%, but rents are skyrocketing from around $0.50 a year ago to nearly $0.80 today.
·         Office and office Flex has been nearly flat for the last three years, with only a modest drop in vacancy rate the last year to 18.1% and a modest increase in rental rates to about $2.30 from $2.20 a year ago.

The most recent transaction was a deal to lease Amazon 224,000 square feet for a distribution center that will bring 300 jobs to Richmond.

What we are not seeing is a rush to build on Richmond’s relatively large supply of vacant and under-utilized land.