The pandemic-fueled surge in online shopping is starting to slow, so much so that Amazon plans to give up some of its warehouse space.

Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report that he wants to get rid of at least 10 million square feet, including some in New Jersey.

Amazon didn’t comment further, but it’s unlikely to affect Lehigh Valley or Berks County. Even with a slowdown in purchases, our region is still experiencing its highest demand.

“In terms of new development, the private sector is not slowing down at all in building new industrial facilities — especially e-commerce,” said Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.

Bradley says while it makes sense for inflation to cool things down, that’s not the case in the region.

In the first quarter of 2022, more than 7 million square feet of new industrial space was offered by the private sector for Lehigh and Northampton counties alone, and vacancies have plummeted.

“Last year, in the first quarter of 2021, the private sector reported that the total vacancy rate in the Lehigh Valley was 7.1%. In the first quarter of this year – so January to March – it was down to 4.8%,” Bradley said. .

So don’t expect to see fewer trucks anytime soon.

“Yeah, I think it’s going to start to soften a bit, but nothing like you might see in markets that don’t have such good access to people, goods and services,” Bradley said.