Commercial real estate market shows improvement

Southern Nevada’s commercial real estate markets continued to improve in the third quarter, but the industrial sector posted some of the biggest gains.

That was the finding of RCG Economics and UNLV’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies, which joined on Oct. 17 to release their Las Vegas Valley Quarterly Commercial Surveys.

The report showed a plunge of 4 percentage points in the industrial market’s vacancy rate, which fell from 12.6 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to 8.6 percent in the most recent third quarter. What’s more, the average monthly asking rent per square foot spiked 18 percent, from 51 cents to 60 cents in the same period.

The warehouse-distribution submarket did especially well, with vacancy rates dropping 5.7 percentage points in the last year.

The report said the industrial market is “now firmly on the recovery road.”

The office market, on the other hand, still struggles with above-average vacancies. The sector’s vacancy rate was 21.4 percent in the third quarter, down from 24.9 percent a year earlier. The valley has to shed a 6½-year supply of speculative office space before its vacancy rate will drop to a stabilized level of 10 percent.

Office rents were stable, at $1.88 per square foot.

Finally, retail vacancies fell 1.4 percentage points year over year, to 11 percent. Rents dropped to $1.22 per square foot, down from $1.30 a year earlier. The market has to chew through a one-year supply of anchored retail space before it hits the 10 percent mark.

WE BUILT THIS CITY

Mark your calendars: The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association is hosting its second annual “We Built This City” membership networking dinner meeting Nov 19 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Orleans.

Developer Mark Fine will moderate a panel of heavyweights in local infrastructure development and construction. Panelists will be transportation expert Don Andress; Pat Mulroy, former Southern Nevada Water Authority chief; Virginia Valentine, former general manager of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District and current Nevada Resort Association president; and Bruce Woodbury, former Clark County commissioner.

Association events are for members, but nonmembers are allowed to attend one event.

For more information, call 702-794-0117.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.