Industrial market is surging in region, state

If current projections hold, nearly 77 million square feet of new industrial space will need to be developed in Florida by 2030 to keep pace with a growing population base and consumer demand, according to a new report.

That future demand comes despite construction of more than 36 million square feet of new distribution space in the Sunshine State since 2006, commercial real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield says in its 2016 Florida Logistics Report.

At the same time, vacancy rates statewide and in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and the Lakeland submarket have fallen to 5.2% — a 4.5 percentage point drop since 2010, Cushman & Wakefield notes.