Consumer demand is driving the warehouse boom in Central Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley with ecommerce companies leasing more than half of the space.

Coming off a record-breaking year in 2021, the I-78/I-81 corridor is continuing to experience record low vacancy, record high absorption and record high rents in the commercial real estate market, as well as a construction industry that’s struggling to keep up with demand. 

The United States had a record year for large warehouses in 2021 and the I-78/I-81 corridor, running through the Lehigh Valley, Central Pennsylvania and Northeastern Pennsylvania ranked second in the country for these large transactions. 

Recent reports of such supply chain problems as the 80,000 cargo shipping containers piled up at the Port of Savannah and ships waiting up to nine days to offload their cargo, illustrate why the commercial real estate market is booming in Eastern Pennsylvania along the I-78/I-81 corridor. 

Rent prices for logistics facilities in the Northeast U.S. Corridor are skyrocketing, but that may be good news for developers and property managers in the Lehigh Valley and Central Pennsylvania.

CBRE has named Rija Beares to lead its Greater Philadelphia Region, which includes both the Lehigh Valley and Central Pennsylvania in addition to downtown and suburban Philadelphia, Delaware and Southern New Jersey.

CBRE reports that it arranged the sale of the nearly 2.4 million-square-foot Rausch Creek Logistics Center in Valley View to California-based Panattoni Development Co.

The overwhelming demand for light industrial and warehousing space along the I-78/I-81 corridor should last through the end of the year and likely beyond, said Vince Ranalli, executive vice president for CBRE.

Commercial real estate experts were expecting 2020's industrial development boom to continue, but Mike Hess, senior vice president of CBRE in the Harrisburg office said industrial development along the I-78/I-81 corridor was even stronger than expected during the first quarter of the year.

Despite the pandemic, or in some ways even because of it, commercial real estate demand was strong along the Pennsylvania I-18/I-81 corridor, exceeding the demand over the prior year and driving up commercial real estate leasing rates to record highs.

An 832,000-square-foot building in Myerstown, Lebanon County was acquired by International real asset investment management firm, CBRE Global Investors as part of a larger logistics portfolio acquisition.

Developers are building a 352,000-square-foot warehouse on North Hills Road, just off Route 30 in Springettsbury Township.

Online grocery sales are expected to fuel more cold storage growth in the U.S., but food service distributors also are seeing a need to expand their facilities.