We asked Cushman & Wakefield senior director Gary Collett to do some detective work for us on what's going on in the industrial markets and he went straight to work. (We think the magnifying glass adds a Sherlock Holmes touch.) Gary says the industrial market started aggressively during Q1 '11. Leasing activity (new leases, expansions, subleases excluding renewals) totaled 4.8M SFproviding an 83.9% increase from this time last year. Warehouseleasing accounted for 86.1% of the total leasing activity during the quarter.

Gary says major tenants occupying space during this time include Novamex, National Distribution Centers, Hayes Distributing, Daikin AC, Uline, SP Richards, Keystone Automotive (168k SF deal at Grand Lakes I, pictured, from Duke Realty Corp), Pitney Bowes, and Chainlink Services. No new spec construction is anticipated in 2011 and no new construction completions occurred during Q1. There's1.6M SF under construction (all build-to-suits) compared to 744k SFa year ago. Gary tells us the outlook for the year is increased leasing activity with the vacancy rate for industrial space moving closer toequilibrium and improved employment growth with many corporations deciding to expand in the DFW area.