Vacancies have risen for a sixth straight quarter in Hawai'i's industrial real estate market, reflecting new warehouse development that's coming online amid a weakening local economy.

Commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis released a report today that said the statewide industrial space vacancy rate in the third quarter rose to 2.8 percent from 1.7 percent at mid-year.

The vacancy rate represented 1.5 million square feet of empty space. Nearly half of that empty space, or 711,244 square feet, landed on the market in the first nine months of this year, while 570,933 square feet of that was added in the third quarter, CBRE said.

Still, CBRE said Hawai'i has one of the tightest industrial real estate markets in the nation.

The real estate firm said increased vacancies in have been in large part from new projects added to the market after a five-year industry expansion.

The new space, as well as rising operating expenses, helped raise the average monthly base asking rent per square foot of space to $1.26, up 12 cents from the 2007 third quarter. Rents in some submarkets with older property have shown reduced asking rental rates.