Bay Area industrial space, from the Port of Oakland to the Tri-Valley.
The Bay Area is several industrial markets sharing one label. The Oakland I-880 corridor serves the port and the urban core. The Tri-Valley and Fremont serve manufacturing and regional distribution. The Peninsula serves life sciences cold chain at rents that have nothing to do with the rest. The published figures below cover the Oakland corridor only, because that is the only geography a brokerage currently reports in public.
Where the leverage sits right now.
Corridor vacancy of 7.3 percent, up from 7.1 percent, with barely a quarter million square feet under construction. This is not a market being reset by new supply. Leverage comes from the specific landlord whose building has sat, and from the fact that occupiers keep choosing the Central Valley and Reno for anything that does not need to be inside the Bay.
Asking rent of $1.68 is the highest of the markets we publish and has risen since early 2025. Before paying it, test whether the operation truly needs to be on the corridor. Overnight ground reach from the Bay Area covers 13 percent of the US population, nearly identical to Reno's 14.5 percent, and Reno rents are less than half.
For life sciences and food operations that must stay in the region, the negotiation is about power, refrigeration and improvement dollars more than face rent. Those are the terms we focus on first.
What the major brokerages report.
Each firm tracks a slightly different building set, and in some markets a different metric, so the figures differ. We show all of them rather than average them, because an average of three different definitions describes nothing. Where the spread matters to a negotiation, we say so above.
| Firm | Quarter | Vacancy | Asking rent | Net absorption | Under construction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colliers Oakland I-80/I-880 corridor only colliers.com | Q1 2026 | 7.3% | $1.68 | +121,247 sq. ft. | 275,320 sq. ft. |
Reach, infrastructure, and labor.
Share of the US population within 450 road-equivalent miles (one-day ground) and 1,000 miles (two-day ground) of the market center, computed against population-weighted centroids of all 3,125 US counties (2020 Census). Bands approximate FedEx and UPS Ground zone tables within roughly 10 percent and are for comparing markets, not quoting transit times.
Sources: ofis.trade.gov
Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025. Wage is the mean hourly wage for laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (OEWS 53-7062) in the metro area.
Where the buildings are.
Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward and Union City. The port-serving core, with the densest concentration of older distribution and transload buildings.
Advanced manufacturing and electric vehicle supply chain, with the largest single buildings in the East Bay.
Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin on I-580. Regional distribution reaching the Central Valley, and the East Bay's main source of new construction.
Life sciences, pharmaceutical cold chain and airport-adjacent logistics at rents set by lab demand rather than warehouse demand.
The operations that choose Bay Area.
We represent tenants and buyers only. No landlord listings in Bay Area, so every building in the market is a candidate and every negotiation is on your side of the table. See the operations we serve.
Evaluating Bay Area?
Tell us the size, timing, and operation. We will come back with a curated shortlist and a read on where the leverage is in this market right now.