The industrial sector of the U.S. commercial real estate market began to recover in the last half of 2010, according to a new report by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. Economist Jared Sullivan wrote that the amount of available industrial space fell in the final three months of 2010 for the first time in 11 quarters. “The industrial sector was hit particularly hard by this recession, which pushed the availability rate up 490 basis points to a record 14.6 percent,” Sullivan wrote. “With a record amount of available space, rents naturally started to drop, falling 17 percent nationally.” Of the industrial market’s subsectors, the distribution segment has shown the strongest signs of recovery, though large amounts of unoccupied space in the overall industrial market continued to place downward pressure on rents in the first quarter.