Why Baton Rouge’s industrial real estate market remains gridlocked


    The Baton Rouge industrial real estate market continues to find itself in a state of “gridlock and stagnation” even as the national market appears to be in the midst of a healthy cycle, Business Report’s latest Real Estate Report edition notes.

    That’s according to a report presented by Evan Scroggs of Lee & Associates at the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors’ recent Trends conference.

    The national industrial real estate market’s vacancy rate at the end of 2023 stood at 5.7%, up significantly from the record-low vacancy rate of 2.9% seen at the end of Q2 2022. In Baton Rouge, though, the vacancy rate at the end of 2023 was just 2.45%—less than half of the national average but up slightly from the 1.97% seen at the end of 2022.

    The Baton Rouge industrial real estate market continues to be chronically underbuilt, with no substantial solutions on the horizon.

    “We don’t have any real vacancy in the marketplace above 50,000 square feet,” Scroggs says.

    Get more analysis of the industrial market and check out the rest of Business Report’s Real Estate Report.