Market Spotlight | Lee County Industrial Market

Lee County's industrial market, which consists of roughly 2,170 buildings totaling 30.55 million square feet of space in Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, the city of Fort Myers, Estero, Lehigh, North and South Fort Myers and its islands, had an overall vacancy rate of 5.8% at the end of the first quarter of this year.

That rate compared with 12.7% overall vacancy in the second quarter of 2012, according to CoStar Group data.

In another sign of market recovery, Lee County also has two buildings under construction, totaling 223,943 square feet. Both projects are fully leased, according to CoStar.

$6.30
Rental rates per square foot in the county as of March 31, vs. $5.02 per square foot for the same space four years ago.

$6.68
Average rental rate for all industrial supply in the three-county area that comprises Southwest Florida.

4.7%
Vacancy rate as of March 31 for all industrial product in Southwest Florida, which CoStar defines as Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties. Ending 2009, the rate was 14%.

835
Number of industrial buildings in the South Fort Myers/San Carlos submarket, the largest of Lee County's eight submarkets.

92,164
Square footage of the largest industrial lease signed in the first quarter of 2016, a renewal by FedEx at 2670 Colonial Blvd., in South Fort Myers.

114,337
Amount of industrial square footage absorbed in the first quarter in Southwest Florida. For the final quarter of 2015, the figure was 715,051.