People
This philosophy holds true today — customers are the backbone of our business. From our inception, we have internally managed our properties. This approach creates stronger customer relationships, allowing us to achieve occupancies in our portfolio roughly 1 to 2 percent higher on average than that of the markets in which we operate. We also experience strong customer retention, with more than 75 percent of our customers in 2009 choosing to renew with us.
Perhaps the most telling result of our customer focus is repeat business. More than 57 percent of the space in our newly developed buildings was leased by repeat customers in 2009. Historically, customers were the force behind our geographic expansion as we moved from the United States into Mexico, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Canada. And once again, existing customers are driving the demand we are beginning to see for new build-to-suit development.
Although we had pulled back on development activity to conserve capital starting in late 2008, we began developing again in the second half of 2009 in response to customer build-to-suit requirements. Even though many markets continue to have an excess supply of space, some customers still are not able to meet their distribution facility needs given their specific requirements.
As a result, we started five new developments in the second half of 2009, representing $336 million of total investment, for customers such as Kirin Logistics in Japan and LG Electronics in the Netherlands. These transactions allowed us to utilize land we already owned while serving the needs of important customers. In most cases, we were able to secure pre-committed buyers or develop within joint ventures in order to minimize our capital outlay. Furthermore, customers are once again focusing on sustainability initiatives, which we expect will drive additional development demand in 2010 and beyond.
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