Louisville Commercial Real Estate Market Report: Q4 2024 Data

October 3, 2026 at 4:00 AM

by Rob Bergeron

Louisville Commercial Real Estate Market Report: Q4 2024 Data

This edition covers fourth-quarter 2024 (October–December) market data, compiled and published by Winner Commercial in October 2026 as part of our quarterly report archive.

Every figure below comes from a research report published for that quarter. When two research firms measure the same market differently, we show both and explain why. When a number wasn't published for Q4 2024, we say so instead of filling the gap. For the most current numbers, see the Q3 2026 edition.

Market snapshot: Q4 2024

Industrial vacancy fell to 3.6% from 4.1%, and bulk (big-box) vacancy dropped to 5.3% from 6.5%, per Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky. Canadian Solar's 1,052,831-square-foot lease in Shelby County led the quarter.
Tenants absorbed 1.7 million square feet of industrial space in Q4 and 3.1 million for 2024, per Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE counted 3.8 million for the year.
Office vacancy improved to 15.7%, per Cushman & Wakefield's national office tables, with +61,157 square feet of net absorption.
Shopping center vacancy dropped back to 4.1% from 4.8%, with +214,235 square feet of net absorption, per Cushman & Wakefield's national retail tables.
Apartment rents averaged $1,189 a month with 93.8% occupancy, per MMG Real Estate Advisors, after 4,164 units completed in 2024.

Industrial

Louisville industrial closed 2024 strong. Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky's Q4 2024 Industrial MarketBeat put overall vacancy at 3.6%, down 50 basis points from 4.1% in Q3. (A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point, so 50 basis points equals 0.5%.) Net absorption, the change in occupied space (move-ins minus move-outs), was about 1.7 million square feet in Q4 and 3.1 million for the year, below 2023's 5.2 million.

Bulk buildings drove the quarter. Bulk vacancy fell to 5.3% from 6.5%, bulk absorption was about 1.7 million square feet in Q4 and 3.9 million for the year, and bulk asking rent rose to $6.16 per square foot from $6.11 in Q3 and $5.54 in 2023. The overall asking rent was $5.93. Leasing reached 2.6 million square feet in Q4 and 7.7 million for 2024, down from 10.5 million in 2023.

Two research firms reported two different numbers, and both are accurate for what they measure. CBRE's Q4 2024 Louisville Industrial Figures put vacancy at 3.5%, up 10 basis points, with availability at 5.1%, Q4 net absorption of 548,398 square feet and full-year absorption of 3,828,730 square feet. Compare each firm only against its own prior quarters.

Notable Q4 deals listed by Cushman & Wakefield:

Canadian Solar: 1,052,831 square feet at 139 Logistics Drive, Shelby County (new lease).
Dorman Products: 436,716 square feet at 251 Buffalo Run Road, Bullitt County (new lease).
U.S. Census Bureau: 343,813 square feet at 1751 Penny Martin Lane, Southern Indiana (new lease).
Vertex Aerospace: 128,925 square feet at 945–1001 Cheri Way, South (new lease).
UFP Packaging: 160,000 square feet at 101 River Ridge Circle, Southern Indiana (sublease, meaning space rented from an existing tenant).

The Canadian Solar deal reshaped Shelby County. Its vacancy fell to 5.5% from 20.8% in Q3, and the submarket led the metro with 1.57 million square feet of 2024 absorption. Elsewhere at year-end: East at 0.6% vacancy, South at 2.9%, Southern Indiana at 3.3%, Central at 3.7%, West/Southwest at 4.9% and Bullitt County at 7.0%.

Supply was set to pick up. Cushman & Wakefield counted 3.3 million square feet under construction (67% speculative, meaning built without a signed tenant) and 8.8 million planned. Completions totaled 2.6 million square feet in 2024, and the firm expected 4.8 million in 2025. CBRE put the Q4 construction total above 5 million square feet. For a corridor-by-corridor view, see our Louisville industrial corridors guide.

Office

For Q4 2024, the public Louisville office figures come from the market statistics tables in Cushman & Wakefield's Q4 2024 U.S. Office MarketBeat. Overall vacancy was 15.7%, down from 16.0% in Q3, and net absorption was +61,157 square feet, the second straight positive quarter. Leasing for 2024 totaled 838,591 square feet. Overall asking rent was $18.76 per square foot, and Class A asking rent was $20.45. Inventory was 20,478,214 square feet, 44,000 square feet was under construction, and no new office space completed in 2024.

A note on revisions: the Q4 tables restated Louisville's earlier 2024 quarters. Vacancy now reads 16.2% for Q1, 16.2% for Q2 and 16.0% for Q3, vs. 16.5%, 16.5% and 16.2% as first published. Research firms revise when buildings are added to or removed from the tracked set or when leases are reported late. On the restated numbers, quarterly absorption for 2024 was -71,846, -2,967, +48,119 and +61,157 square feet, which adds up to about 34,500 square feet of positive absorption for the year.

What's missing: the local Q4 2024 Louisville Office MarketBeat, which carries the downtown vs. suburban split, was not publicly accessible when we compiled this edition, and we could not load a Q4 2024 Louisville office report from CBRE. So this edition does not print Q4 central business district (CBD) or suburban vacancy. One Q4 figure did surface in Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky's Q1 2025 report: suburban Class A asking rent of $21.78 per square foot at year-end 2024. More detail by area is in our Louisville office corridors guide.

Retail

Cushman & Wakefield's Q4 2024 national retail tables, which track shopping centers only, put Louisville shopping center vacancy at 4.1%, down from 4.8% in Q3 and below the 4.3% of Q4 2023. Net absorption was +214,235 square feet, the best quarter of the year after two negative ones. Asking rent slipped to $17.27 per square foot from $17.59, nearly flat with $17.23 a year earlier. The Q4 figures were marked preliminary.

The same tables tracked 29,304,803 square feet of Louisville shopping center inventory, no shopping center deliveries in 2024 and 363,140 square feet under construction. With nothing new delivered, vacancy fell only because tenants moved into existing space. We could not find a Q4 2024 all-retail vacancy rate (including freestanding and street retail) in the public reports we reviewed. Projects in motion, per REBusinessOnline's September 2024 retail feature, included BJ's Wholesale Club's conversion of the former Sears on the Outer Loop, projected for Q2 2025, and Wawa's build-out toward 40 stores across Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

Commercial multifamily (apartment buildings)

MMG Real Estate Advisors' 2025 Louisville Forecast, which reports year-end 2024 data, put average effective rent, meaning what renters actually pay after concessions such as a free month, at $1,189 a month in Q4 2024. Occupancy was 93.8%. The market completed 4,164 units in 2024 and absorbed 2,255, which MMG said was about 60% above the pre-pandemic average.

The supply wave was cresting. Units under construction fell to 2,139, down 59% from a year earlier, and 2024 starts fell to 1,068 units, down 69% from 3,499 in 2023. MMG's forecast called for about 1,286 completions and 2.5% rent growth in 2025. Those are projections, not results, and later editions show how they played out.

One note on MMG's numbers: its 3Q 2024 report counted 2,355 units absorbed through September, while the year-end report shows 2,255 for all of 2024, and Q3 rent of $1,196 vs. a Q4 figure of $1,189. That points to revised data rather than a fourth quarter of negative demand. We cite each as published.

Investment sales and cap rates

A capitalization rate (cap rate) is a property's net operating income (NOI) divided by its price. None of the Q4 2024 Louisville reports we could access published a quarter-specific cap rate, so we are not citing one. We also could not find a published list of Q4 2024 Louisville apartment sales. Reported transaction activity:

Industrial: ESI, Inc.'s 426,450-square-foot investment sale at 301 Logistics Avenue in Southern Indiana, per Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky. The price was not published.

What changed from the prior quarter (Q3 2024 to Q4 2024)

Industrial vacancy: 4.1% to 3.6%. Bulk vacancy: 6.5% to 5.3%. Bulk asking rent: $6.11 to $6.16. (Cushman & Wakefield)
Industrial net absorption: +280,174 square feet to about +1.7 million. Under construction: 3.7 million to 3.3 million square feet.
Shelby County industrial vacancy: 20.8% to 5.5%.
Office vacancy: 16.0% (restated) to 15.7%. Net absorption: +48,119 (restated) to +61,157 square feet. Asking rent: $18.74 (restated) to $18.76. (Cushman & Wakefield national tables)
Shopping center vacancy: 4.8% to 4.1%. Net absorption: -69,364 to +214,235 square feet. Asking rent: $17.59 to $17.27.
Apartments (MMG): rent $1,196 to $1,189; occupancy 94.5% to 93.8%.

What it meant for owners, buyers, and tenants

Industrial tenants lost leverage fast. In one quarter, bulk vacancy fell more than a full point and Shelby County went from the loosest submarket to a middle-of-the-pack one. Users needing space in the East submarket, at 0.6% vacancy, had almost nothing to choose from. Owners of new bulk buildings were in a much better spot than they had been a year earlier, though the 8.8 million square feet planned was a reminder that supply could return.

Office owners got a second positive quarter, but absorption for the full year was close to zero. Tenants still held leverage, particularly downtown, where the last published split (Q2 2024) showed 21.6% CBD vacancy.

Apartment owners faced the tail end of a heavy supply year, with occupancy down to 93.8%. With starts down 69%, the setup for 2025 was less new competition, but underwriting off actual concessions and in-place rents still mattered more than asking rents. Run the math with our commercial calculators, or request a free commercial property valuation.

Other editions in this archive

This archive is named by data quarter. The newest numbers are in the Q3 2026 Louisville commercial real estate market report. Other archive editions:

Our Louisville commercial real estate hub links everything in one place.

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FAQ

What was Louisville's industrial vacancy rate at the end of 2024?

3.6% in Q4 2024, down from 4.1% in Q3, per Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky. CBRE reported 3.5%. Bulk vacancy was 5.3%.

How much industrial space did Louisville absorb in 2024?

About 3.1 million square feet per Cushman & Wakefield and 3,828,730 square feet per CBRE. The firms track different building sets, so their totals differ. Cushman & Wakefield reported 5.2 million for 2023.

Why did Louisville's 2024 office vacancy numbers change?

Cushman & Wakefield restated its earlier 2024 quarters in its Q4 tables, for example Q3 from 16.2% to 16.0%. Revisions like this happen when the tracked building set changes or leases are reported late. Q4 2024 vacancy was 15.7%.

What was the average apartment rent in Louisville in Q4 2024?

$1,189 a month in average effective rent, with 93.8% occupancy, per MMG Real Estate Advisors. The market completed 4,164 units in 2024.

Is this the most recent Louisville market report?

No. This is an archive edition covering October–December 2024 data. The newest edition is the Q3 2026 report.

Sources

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