Cleveland Industrial Market Report

Metro well-positioned to receive heightened supply additions. At the end of 2022, Ford announced expansion plans for its Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake to construct electric vehicles. The $1.5 billion investment could double the site’s workforce long term, coinciding with Ford’s goal to bring a new product to the plant by the end of 2023. On top of Cleveland’s evolving traditional car manufacturing industry, Involta plans to spend $135 million expanding data center campuses nearby in Akron and Independence, according to the state. Continued company commitments in the market justify deliveries surpassing 2 million square feet for the second year in a row. Despite the ample additions, about 70 percent of this year’s pipeline comes from just two deliveries, allowing overall vacancy to trend further down in 2023. Unlike other major U.S. markets, Cleveland did not see major vacancy reductions for industrial properties during the pandemic. The absence of erratic changes in availability over the last three years has highlighted the market’s stability. With vacancy never compressing to unsustainable lows, the metro is unlikely to experience a radical corrective climb in the near future.