Matt Laraway, SIOR, Chesapeake Real Estate Group

“With more than 9.5 million square feet of warehouse/industrial space absorbed in the greater Baltimore metropolitan region last year,” Matt Laraway, Partner with Chesapeake Real Estate Group (CREG) told a group of more than 40 members of the SIOR Maryland/District of Columbia/Northern Virginia Chapter, “2019 was the most prolific leasing year on record in the region. The figure eclipsed the previous year’s total by more than 40%.” The data references information released in the CBRE 4th quarter Industrial Report. Laraway, Immediate Past President of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors local chapter, was among several speakers providing a market update of the region.

The local chapter of the national organization is made up of many of the top commercial brokerage professionals from the District of Columbia, the state of Maryland and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William, as well as the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church and Manassas within the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Scott Skogmo, SIOR, Chesapeake Real Estate Group

Scott Skogmo, Senior Director of CREG is President of the chapter. Additional officers include Kate Jordan, Principal, Lee & Associates | Maryland, Vice President; Hayes Merkert, Senior Vice President, The MacKenzie Companies, Treasurer and Mike Norris, President, Healthy Tenant, Inc., Secretary.

“The majority of that absorption, in excess of 8.0 million square feet,occurred in the I-95 North sub-market,” Laraway continued, “which includes Baltimore City Southeast,Baltimore County East and Harford and Cecil Counties. Prince George’s County, after experiencing a slow-down in leasing pace in 2017 and 2018, has started to see a significant bump in activity and leasing velocity, a trend we expect to continue in 2020 Across the region as well as nationally, we are certainly seeing an increased focus on infill leasing and last-mile logistics.”

Hayes Merkert, SIOR, The MacKenzie Companies

Hayes Merkert provided an overview of the office marketplace locally and cited 2019 absorption and vacancy numbers for Baltimore City (negative 280,000 square feet of absorption and 14% vacancy); Baltimore County (positive 145,000 square feet of absorption and 12% vacancy) and Howard County (3,000 square feet of absorption and 11% vacancy).

The SIOR designation is a professional achievement for highly-qualified commercial real estate practitioners with a strong and sustained transactional history in brokerage, fee-based services or executive management. SIOR members work exclusively in the industrial and office sector of real estate. The local chapter, part of a network of nearly fifty chapters located throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, contains more than sixty members.

“The Maryland-Washington, D.C.-Northern Virginia environment is among the highest-performing sectors nationally in the industrial/warehouse product category, and our members continue to play significant roles in the leasing and sale of high-profile transactions,” Skogmo added.