Originally published on October 19, 2023, by Kathryn Hamilton, CAE for NAIOP.

Amazon’s real estate strategies have stretched and been reshaped over the last decade as the company – like every retailer – strives to expand its reach and get closer to the consumer. The largest developer of industrial real estate in the world, the company has always leaned into the innovation and partnerships that fuel its corporate culture and deepen its impact.

At NAIOP’s CRE.Converge conference this week in Seattle, Amazon Vice President for Worldwide Real Estate Daniel Mallory sat down for an in-depth chat in front of an audience of 1,500 commercial real estate leaders. Jean Kane, former CEO of Colliers International-Minneapolis St. Paul and the incoming chair of the NAIOP Research Foundation asked Mallory about his perspectives on everything from the company’s sustainability efforts to today’s market challenges to future workforces and beyond.

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Originally published on October 20, 2023, by Logan Nagel for NAIOP.

Industrial real estate might have been one of the strongest-performing property types out there in recent years, but it is far from immune to change. During the panel “Industrial Real Estate and the North American Supply Chain Revolution,” held at NAIOP’s CRE.Converge conference in Seattle this week, Chad Griffiths, MBA, SIOR, partner and associate broker at NAI Commercial Real Estate, spoke with Matt Carroll, senior associate at Avison Young, about what’s in store for industrial properties in the coming years.

The background to modern-day industrial real estate is an ongoing dialogue about globalization versus deglobalization as the pandemic fades into the rearview mirror, Carroll said. There are proponents of manufacturing overseas and supporters of manufacturing in North America, as well as a paradigm shift from optimality toward optionality. “Optimality was … ’I want to be as efficient and low in cost as possible,’” he said. “And as we come out of the pandemic era, what you hear a lot of people talking about is having optionality…’If I can’t move all of my manufacturing back to the U.S., I want to least have the option to mitigate my risk by having the presence of manufacturing on this side of the hemisphere.’”

Another transformative force the panelists discussed was a recent rail merger, the acquisition of Kansas City Southern by Canadian Pacific. The merger will result in the first trans-American rail line linking Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, which Carroll described as like a tree with roots in Mexico. Griffiths said developers should consider opportunities for intermodal yards, airports and other industrial properties along the “trunk” of that tree.

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Originally published by Hany Guirguis, Ph.D., Manhattan College and Michael J. Seiler, DBA, College of William & Mary in August 2023 for NAIOP.

Given current economic conditions and recent demand trends, the authors estimate that quarterly net absorption of industrial space will average 52.6 million square feet over the next two years. Total net absorption for the second half of 2023 is forecast to be approximately 104 million square feet; full-year absorption in 2024 is forecast to be around 205 million square feet; and absorption in the first half of 2025 is forecast to be approximately 111 million square feet (see Figure 1 for quarterly projections).

The Industrial Market

The industrial market remains relatively healthy, although not as strong as it was last year. After several quarters of demand for industrial space outstripping supply, the reverse has been true since the third quarter of 2022. Construction starts and transactions have slowed, reflecting higher interest rates, tighter lending standards and cooling demand. Supply and demand for industrial space appear to be converging toward a slower pace of growth that is more aligned with pre-pandemic trends.

The national vacancy rate stands at a historically healthy 3.7%, though vacancies vary greatly between different geographic markets. Port markets on both the East and West Coasts have the lowest vacancy rates, with markets in the Midwest having slightly higher rates. Average net asking rents are up 9.9% year-over-year.¹ Interestingly, vacancy rates have increased slightly alongside rent growth. This reflects the delivery of new high-quality industrial space that can command higher rents. New deliveries have outpaced absorption, contributing to the uptick in vacancies. Land constraints in port markets present a barrier to new construction, contributing to lower vacancy rates and higher rents in those markets.

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Originally published in June 2023 by KSS Architects for NAIOP.

The rapid expansion of e-commerce over the past decade has reshaped industrial real estate and the nature of work within warehouses and distribution centers. Occupiers have invested in mechanization, automation and warehouse-management systems to maximize throughput. Despite that, distribution centers often require a large number of workers to process incoming shipments and outgoing orders. Growing competition for workers and increased awareness about workplace wellness have generated interest in designing interventions that can make these centers healthier and more attractive work environments. Wellness features in industrial properties can contribute to market differentiation, increase employee retention, impact productivity and help meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

The NAIOP Research Foundation commissioned this report to offer design recommendations that improve occupant well-being. The authors conducted secondary research, observed conditions in existing distribution centers, and interviewed occupants to collect information on key wellness concerns. They then drew from these findings to design a prototype distribution center with elements and features that contribute to a healthier and safer work environment.

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Originally published on June 8, 2023 by Natalie Fidlow, CFA for NAIOP.

“Volatility and uncertainty” describe the current state of the markets, according to Tom Griggs, managing director and head of industrial & logistics for the East at Hines, with the past 12-18 months presenting a difficult environment. Griggs led an expert panel discussion on the outlook for the industrial real estate capital markets at NAIOP’s I.CON East.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Peter Nicoletti, head of capital markets in New York at Colliers International, recalled the third quarter of 2022 when the markets seized up. “In the following months, spreads on deals slowly started coming in until January of this year, when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed. At that point, spreads blew back out.” Lenders are risk-off. Colliers International does have $1.8 billion in construction deals and has noticed that there has been a tightening in underwriting standards. Now, a deal’s loan-to-cost is around 55-65%. The days of 85% are gone. Nicoletti anticipates seeing more competitive pricing as those investors who moved to the sidelines return.

Originally published on June 9, 2023 by Kathryn Hamilton, CAE for NAIOP.

Every day, developers drive past prime industrial real estate sites that could be warehouse-perfect, were it not for the sloped grade that would cost too much to excavate to make the facility level. Enter a new solution: a split-level building that doubles the space by creating efficiencies in construction costs and land use.

This unique multistory prototype design solution by Ware Malcomb can help utilize forgotten sites that were previously deemed unsuitable for industrial development due to their complex topography.

Frank Di Roma, OAA, MRAIC, regional vice president, and Luke Corsbie, PE, PLS, LEED AP, regional director, civil engineering, both with Ware Malcomb, walked I.CON East attendees through this exciting new concept and discussed the benefits of using split-level industrial in unexpected locations.

Originally published on March 14, 2023, by Marie Ruff for NAIOP.

Experts dug into the data behind labor and workforce trends in California’s Inland Empire and the surrounding regions, one of the most competitive labor markets for distribution and manufacturing workers in the western U.S., during a session at NAIOP’s I.CON West in Long Beach, California. Speakers noted that alternative markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas/Reno could provide valuable options outside of the Inland Empire, especially when considering total cost modeling.

The Inland Empire comes out on top according to many metrics in Hickey & Associates’ 2023 analysis, from its labor supply to location. “But if you look at the labor cost, the real estate costs, and the transportation costs, things start to change,” said session moderator Kevin Dollhopf, MBA, MA, MCR, IAMC Fellow, principal, Hickey & Associates. While the Inland Empire is great from a real estate market and returns perspective, occupiers are having heartburn from what’s going on, he added. 

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Originally published on March 10, 2023, by Kathryn Hamilton, CAE for NAIOP.

As industrial spaces move deeper into urban areas, the need to build up instead of out will increase. Vertical industrial – whether used for fulfillment, maker spaces, labs or light manufacturing – requires a new approach, different requirements and a whole lot of explaining.  

Russell Hazzard, AIA, president of MG2, led a panel of experienced vertical industrial developers and architects at this week’s I.CON West in Long Beach, California, that explored the advantages and challenges that accompany these types of projects.  

It’s important to consider three main elements of multistory industrial that differ from traditional single-story industrial before getting started, said Ken Sun, senior vice president, regional head of development – West region, Prologis. First is the target customer and their use, whether traditional warehouse, third-party logistics company, fleet management or another purpose. 

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Originally published on March 10, 2023 by Marie Ruff for NAIOP.

The industrial real estate market has been on fire, but this still-hot sector is expected to cool, according to the latest Industrial Space Demand Forecast from the NAIOP Research Foundation. A powerhouse panel of financial experts addressed the capital markets outlook for industrial real estate in a session at NAIOP’s I.CON West in Long Beach, California. 

Session moderator Jim Linn, executive managing director, Newmark, led the discussion. The panel included Valerie Achtemeier, vice chairman of capital markets, CBRE; Gregg Boehm, managing director, market officer, industrial, Ares Real Estate Group; and Max Gagliardi, CFA, senior managing director, capital markets, Dalfen Industrial. 

Where are you seeing opportunities? 

Originally published by Marie Ruff for NAIOP E-Newsletter.

The next phase of advanced manufacturing innovation is ready for launch in the Long Beach region of California. Attendees of NAIOP’s I.CON West were able to go behind the scenes on a project tour of cutting-edge advanced manufacturing facilities in Douglas Park, an industrial, retail and hotel center that spans more than 260 acres adjacent to the Long Beach Airport.

Morf3D: Advancing Aerospace with Additive Manufacturing

The first stop on the tour: Morf3D, a company that primarily serves clients in the aerospace, space and defense industries. These industries require highly specialized equipment that meets stringent specifications including being durable, lightweight and thermal-resistant, which Morf3D achieves using metal additive engineering and manufacturing.

The 90,000-square-foot Douglas Park building was a spec building that Morf3D has been adapting to suit the varying needs of their clients, from security clearance requirements to power needs. Some tenants require temperature control within four degrees to keep the equipment running smoothly and prevent any quality concerns with the products; others require the temperature to not vary more than two degrees.

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Originally published on February 9, 2023, by NAIOP.

E-commerce facilities located near residential communities enable faster delivery and access to the workforce who will help companies expand. Explore how developers are working with communities to find creative solutions to their concerns and position these facilities for success.

Originally published on January 20, 2023 by Brielle Scott for E-Newsletter.

Wellness in the workplace – it’s a buzzy phrase we hear often in reference to office buildings, but when it comes to the industrial and manufacturing facilities that are ubiquitous to us, what kind of wellness features would we find inside?

Long days, physical labor and often isolated locations can take its toll on the workers at these locations. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a 60% turnover rate in the industrial sector in 2020, and it stands to reason that the additional burdens placed on these essential workers (not to mention the staggering increase in e-commerce demand) during the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the issue.

As any corporate accountant can tell you, employee turnover can have a major impact on a company’s bottom line. And large-scale owners of industrial assets are under the same market pressures as office, multifamily or hotel owners when it comes to ESG reporting and performance.

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Originally published on October 19, 2022, for Business Insider.

As the US emerged from the Great Recession, cheap real estate and the rise of e-commerce collided to create a warehousing boom.

As Amazon and others began building million-square-foot distribution centers, construction skyrocketed. Since 2011, over 2.3 billion square feet of new warehouse space has come to market — enough room to comfortably stuff 3 ½ Manhattans inside.

Past industrial booms created coal countries, steel cities, and oil towns. Now warehouse boomtowns shoot up in places like California's Inland Empire, Pennsylvania's Lehigh County, and Columbus, Ohio, and the number of warehouse workers has nearly tripled in a decade.

Originally published in the Fall 2022 Issue of NAIOP's Development Magazine.

The Morton Salt Company warehouse on Elston Avenue in Chicago once furnished tons of preservative salt for the city’s tanning industry. Today it is itself preserved — a city landmark in the process of rebirth as a concert venue combined with commercial and office space.  

The complex, containing several buildings in a 4.2-acre site along the North Branch of the Chicago River, is being transformed to contain a 30,000-square-foot indoor concert venue in the former salt storage shed, 60,000 square feet of leasable office and commercial space in what had been a three-floor packaging building, additional space in a former garage, and an outdoor performance venue in the footprint of a recently demolished second salt shed.

The site is in the city’s North Branch Industrial Corridor, which has seen considerable development since partial rezoning in 2017 to encourage mixed-used development. The zoning of this site changed from M3-3, Heavy Industry District, to C3-3, Commercial, Manufacturing and Employment District.

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Originally published on September 28, 2022, by Dan Berthiaume for Chain Store Age.

Walmart is debuting a proprietary supply chain automation system in its new high-tech fulfillment center.

Located in Joliet, Ill., and described as the "first-of-its-kind" for Walmart,  the 1.1 million-sq.-ft, high-tech facility is the first of four state-of-the-art fulfillment centers dedicated to e-commerce that Walmart plans to open during the next three years. It will store millions of items available on Walmart.com, that are then picked, packed, and shipped directly to customers.

The new center will also fulfill third-party Walmart Marketplace items shipped by Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), the company's end-to-end fulfillment service for third-party e-commerce sellers.

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Originally published on September 20, 2022, by Maria Gatea for NAIOP Blog.

E-commerce provides easy access to goods with the click of a button, filling homes with stuff, stuff and more stuff. Meanwhile, the trendy minimalist lifestyle emphasizes only keeping what is needed and eliminating everything else. Where does the average American end up on the spectrum of goods ownership? As it turns out, among apartment renters, one in five uses self-storage to manage their belongings, at least temporarily.

Self-storage is a rapidly developing service that assists in life events such as moving, downsizing, or changes in family size. More recently, the widespread need to create home offices with the rise of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has added to the traditional sources of demand for self-storage. Renters, in particular, are finding more use for storage away from home as they move more often, and apartments are generally smaller. On average, renter-occupied homes in the U.S. are smaller than owner-occupied homes by largely 800 square feet. As a result, many renters are using self-storage as an extension of their homes.

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By Linda Strowbridge 

Growing convergence between the retail and distribution sectors could have profound impacts on the commercial real estate industry. As retail and industrial clients adjust to shifts in consumer behavior and the overall economy, CRE professionals will be challenged to change their thinking about how to truly serve their clients. That challenge, however, could also produce innovative real estate products and new opportunities. That’s according to Dustin C. Read, Ph.D./J.D., author of the NAIOP Research Foundation report, “New Places and New Spaces for E-commerce Distribution: Three Strategies Bringing Industrial and Retail Real Estate Closer Together.”

What was the most interesting or significant discovery you made while researching the paper?

Read: It was probably that some of the most important phenomena related to the convergence of industrial and retail real estate were the ones that received the least attention. In the popular press, there has been lots of discussion of the conversion of obsolete retail buildings into distribution facilities. When you really drill down – even though there have been hundreds of articles written on that topic – the number of [these retail-to-distribution conversion] projects that have been successful in the U.S. is relatively small. I was surprised to see when you really start pulling back layers of the onion, there is more talk about it than there is actual execution of those types of projects.

The amalgamation of all the obstacles a developer must overcome to do one of these projects successfully is significant. The project has to be acquired at a relatively low purchase price and have the right access to infrastructure. It must be in a market that has good industrial characteristics and an area where the municipality has given up on the site as a viable retail location and is willing to rezone it for potential distribution. When all those things come together at the same time, there are opportunities for conversion. But often, they don’t all come together.

By Trey Barrineau

Industrial properties are often built near neighborhoods, but that isn’t always popular with the residents, who have legitimate concerns about noise, traffic and pollution from the increased volume of trucks and vans.

A recent NAIOP online panel discussion examined how developers can work with local communities to address these worries through outreach and engagement, as well as with design and technological innovations.

“Education is key to establishing that relationship early on,” said Sven Tustin, executive vice president with Conor Commercial, who moderated the panel. “The developer has to listen to concerns. Residents look at a site plan that shows 200 dock doors, and they assume that there will be 200 trucks coming in and out 24/7.”

TOP FIVE US METROS FOR LIFE SCIENCES IN 2022

By Ioana Ginsac

Growth in the life sciences sector has driven demand in recent years for both commercial real estate space and labor to accommodate this specialized sector. A new study by commercial real estate platform CommercialCafe set out to identify the best metros for life science companies in 2022 and assessed more than 40 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in terms of regional talent pool and workforce; accessibility of local office markets; the degree of availability of existing dedicated property; as well as the state of the local pipeline aiming to expand local life sciences capacity.

Boston took the number one spot on the list, with San Francisco in second place, then San Diego third, New York fourth, and Washington, D.C., rounding out the top five.

A longtime “flagship market” for life sciences, the Boston metropolitan area remains a leader in the sector. The MSA stood out for several key indices scored in the ranking: Boston boasts the largest labor pool among the metros analyzed, as well as the largest life sciences real estate market — nearly 25 million square feet of existing dedicated property, of which just under 14 million square feet was LEED-certified space. What’s more, with an additional 23.8 million square feet of new life sciences developments in the pipeline — under construction, as well as in the planned and prospective stages — Boston seems firmly placed at number one for the foreseeable future.