There's no shortage of available space in Dallas-Fort Worth's industrial market.

Almost 350 industrial buildings in the area with 100,000 square feet or more are partly or completely vacant, according to a new study by veteran local warehouse broker Jim Struble.

And 39 other buildings are in development.

That may or may not be bad news, depending on how the market reacts in the months ahead.

"The big thing is, it provides us a great opportunity to bring additional distribution and manufacturing to the area," Mr. Struble said Thursday. "We have a heck of a good supply right now.

"We are very competitive with every place in the country."

Indeed, there is almost 40 million square feet of empty industrial space in North Texas, by Mr. Struble's reckoning.

And the buildings planned will add 17 million square feet, he estimates.

Just over 10 percent of the D-FW industrial market is vacant – up from 9.3 percent a year ago, according to statistics released this week by broker Cushman & Wakefield of Texas.

So far this year, industrial leasing activity has totaled about 10 million square feet, the latest breakdown shows. That's a decline of 13 percent from a year ago. The biggest concentration of warehouse space leasing has been in the Irving-Coppell area.

Net leasing in the first half of the year added up to just under 3 million square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield's preliminary numbers.

Out of the almost 12 million square feet of industrial space added to the market so far in 2008, more than three-quarters of the buildings were vacant at completion.

Even with all the new starts, average warehouse rental rates are only marginally higher than they were a year ago.