Industrial real estate improves

Long Island's industrial real estate market picked up in the first quarter of 2013 as more than twice as much space was leased compared to a year earlier, a report said yesterday. Companies signed new leases totaling 995,000 square feet, a 133-percent increase over the 427,121 leased during the same period last year, the report by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield said. First-quarter leasing has averaged 705,000 square feet over the past five years. Nearly a third of the activity was due to leases signed by real estate firm Basser-Kaufman and electronic supply and services company Wesco. Long Island's office market was up as well, with 467,000 square feet leased compared to 316,693 during the first quarter of 2012.