Bellingham Commercial Real Estate Information

Bellingham Primary Trade Area (population 216,800)

Bellingham’s primary trade area serves a population of 216,800, which includes Bellingham’s city population of 83,580 (2015) and an addition population of 133,220 Whatcom County residents based on natural barriers and a lack of retail options.

Bellingham Secondary Trade Area (population 550,000)

The secondary trade area of Bellingham serves a population of 550,000 which includes the lower mainland of British Columbia including Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, and Abbotsford as well as a population of 100,000 from Skagit Valley. Canadian retail tourism is strong in Bellingham’s trade area with over 9,122,000 passengers crossing the border from Canada into Bellingham in 2016.

Retail, Office, and Industrial Market Statistics

How much retail space exists within the Bellingham market? There are over 450 retail buildings and over 7,400,000 square feet. That may seem like a lot of retail space in a market the size of Bellingham, but with a 2018 vacancy rate of 3.3% it may not be enough. The retail market in Bellingham can be heavily influenced by the Canadian dollar. When the Canadian dollar is on par with the US dollar, the retail market screams in Bellingham. Given historical data, the breaking point appears to be around $0.80 on the US dollar for when the Canadian retail influence begins to diminish and the Bellingham commercial real estate market begins to feel it.

Search the entire market for Bellingham retail space for lease.

The trends in office space usage has changed over the last decade. Office tenants are not only demanding more open space and different types of layouts than before, but they also want more flexibility with their lease. This change in treads has created many older styled offices to be less desirable and with new office tenants wanting shorter lease terms, this would appear to be perfect storm for a disaster, but the statistics suggest otherwise. The current vacancy rate for office space in Bellingham is only 4.5%, which is well down from the 5 year average of 10.2%.

Search the entire market for Bellingham office space for lease.

The industrial building market in Bellingham is a perfect example of how statistics can sometimes be misleading and not tell the whole story. According to the statistics the current vacancy rate for industrial space is 9.2%, which is slightly below the 5 year average of 9.9% vacancy. That means of the 3,800,000+ square feet of industrial building space in the Bellingham market, there is a little over 300,000 square feet that are vacant. This is true, however nearly all of the industrial space that is vacant is owned by the Port of Bellingham and has use restrictions requiring that the tenants either be marine related, or be on a short term lease in the event a marine related business needs the space. This anomaly causes a skew in our Bellingham commercial real estate market statistics. The actual vacancy rate for industrial space in Bellingham is closer to 2% or 3%, which is the least desirable space that is left over. This is a market that is prime for new inventory and development.

Search the entire market for Bellingham industrial space for lease.