Miami-Dade Industrial Absorbed 1.27 Million Square Feet in the Third Quarter. The Recovery Is Real, and Uneven

Miami-Dade’s industrial market absorbed about 1.27 million square feet in the third quarter, its third straight quarter of accelerating demand, and vacancy fell 40 basis points to 6.9%, the tightest it has been in more than a year, according to CBRE figures released October 7. Year to date, the county has absorbed about 2.63 million square feet. After three consecutive quarters of rising vacancy, the market has turned.

What the numbers say

CBRE puts availability, which includes space that will come open within six months, at 9.5%, and average direct asking rent at $17.79 per square foot, a figure that blends net and gross quotes. About 3.4 million square feet is listed for lease, including roughly 808,000 square feet of sublease space. Strip out buildings delivered since 2025 and vacancy falls to 5.4%, the lowest in at least 18 months. Most of the remaining slack sits in new product still leasing up.

The pipeline of committed demand is strong. About 1.9 million square feet of signed leases are scheduled to move in during the fourth quarter. How quickly the space those tenants leave behind gets backfilled will decide whether vacancy holds near today’s level into 2027.

Uneven by submarket

The recovery is not uniform. The Airport and Doral submarket recorded roughly 196,000 square feet of negative absorption in the quarter, even as the county as a whole posted strong gains. For a tenant in that corridor, the countywide figure overstates how much leverage landlords have regained. For an owner, it is a reminder that a building’s competition is the set of comparable spaces nearby, not the county average.

Small-bay space continues to move quickly. In northeast Miami-Dade, a 9,613-square-foot warehouse at 19501 NE 10th Avenue was leased on a three-year triple-net basis, signed within 30 days of being listed, according to Traded, with Marcello Antonelli and Barrett Wolf of Wolf Commercial Real Estate representing landlord EAST Capital Partners. The published asking rent was $24 per square foot; the executed rate and concessions were not disclosed. The building is part of a seven-building, roughly 210,000-square-foot shallow-bay portfolio near I-95 that was fully occupied by 41 tenants when it was financed in 2024.

A word on comparing reports

Research houses survey different sets of buildings and define rent differently. CBRE’s third-quarter numbers should not be read as a continuation of another firm’s second-quarter series. The direction within each firm’s own data is what matters, and here it is clearly improving.

What this means for you

If you are a tenant, refresh any proposal or renewal with current figures, then narrow the comparison to buildings that actually fit: same submarket, clear height, loading and occupancy date. Large blocks in new buildings still offer room to negotiate. Small bays in the northeast and central corridors do not. If you own industrial space, the third quarter supports firmer renewal pricing, particularly for small and mid-size buildings, but price against your real competitors. If you are an investor, a market absorbing space this fast with a thinning pipeline is moving in the owner’s favor.

AXCESS Commercial works on both sides of these deals across Miami-Dade, leasing space, listing properties for sale and managing industrial buildings.

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