The office and industrial real estate markets in the Milwaukee area posted lower amounts of absorption, year-over-year, during the first quarter, but remained positive, according to the first quarter market report from the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin and Xceligent.
Office
The metro Milwaukee office market absorbed 20,529 square feet of space during the first quarter, down considerably from more than 300,000 square feet of space a year ago. However, the vacancy rate dipped from 17.4 percent a year ago to 16.7 percent.
There are a handful of office building projects under construction in Milwaukee, with a total of 283,000 square feet of space, and additional office building projects with more than 525,000 square feet of space are planned for the next two years.
Industrial
The metro Milwaukee industrial real estate market absorbed 445,620 square feet of space during the first quarter, down considerably from 1.6 million square feet during the first quarter of 2016. The vacancy rate increased from 4.1 percent a year ago to 4.3 percent.
Construction remains brisk in the area’s industrial market, with more than 2.2 million square feet of industrial space currently under construction.
Retail
Unlike the office and industrial markets, the area’s retail market performed better than a year ago, absorbing 131,383 square feet of space during the first quarter, up from 61,407 square feet of space during the first quarter of 2016. The vacancy rate dipped from 8.0 percent a year ago to 7.8 percent.
Several new retail developments were under construction during the first quarter, including The Corners of Brookfield and 84South in Greenfield.
In recent years 350,000 square feet of retail space in the area has been repurposed to other uses, according to the report.
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