New construction deliveries push up vacancy in the Corridor
Vacancy increased 60 basis points (bps) from the first quarter of 2023 to 4.9%, and 110 bps when compared with one year ago. The prediction of a soft recession has some retail tenants curbing new industrial space requirements. In addition, several new warehouses delivered over the last few months unleased — which inflated vacancy. Quarter over quarter, the Lehigh Valley submarket’s vacancy rate rose 80 bps to 5.5%, while Central PA’s rate increased 80 bps to 3.9%. The Northeast PA submarket was the only submarket to record a decline in its vacancy rate, which fell 10 bps to 6.2%.