Industrial real estate

Courier, trucking, and warehousing firms lost workers last month, but the seasonal surge and purge was more muted than expected, reflecting broader labor market resilience.

While there are encouraging signs regarding general merchandise retailers seeing their inventories-to-sales return toward pre-COVID levels, data suggests many sectors have a long way to go before their inventories-to-sales come back to pre-pandemic levels.

The rapid expansion of US industrial real estate is expected to slow in 2023 as warehouses are completed, capital costs rise, and the US economy slows, but capacity isn’t going to suddenly flood the market.

Warehousing capacity in the US is predicted to get tighter as 2023 progresses despite the substantial number of distribution and warehousing construction projects under way and efforts to reduce inventories.

As inflation-battered consumers shop for bargains, US retail discounters are expanding their distribution networks.

The industrial warehouse market in the US has enough supply to last through the next year, but logistics developer Prologis cautions there could be an emerging gap in capacity starting as soon as late next year.

Lineage Logistics’ new business line and planned facility in Savannah builds on recent acquisitions the company has made amid an uptick in reefer storage demand.

Despite predictions that the US economy is headed for a recession, warehousing demand keeps mounting as different streams of goods fill available space, experts told the JOC Inland Distribution Conference.

With US warehouses full or filling up, shippers are rethinking broader distribution strategies and basic practices such as how they stack and track goods to find the space they need.

Inventory buildup and changing inland distribution routes are setting a fire under construction of new logistics and distribution facilities in markets across the US, despite economic concerns.

Maersk’s Performance Team subsidiary said it will open its fourth US cold-storage warehouse near the Port of New York and New Jersey as it seeks to add refrigerated cargo handling to its growing suite of integrated logistics services.

Lineage Logistics is acquiring MTC Logistics, a cold storage operator with warehouses at the ports of Baltimore, Wilmington, Delaware, and Mobile.

Amazon and third-party logistics providers are busy adding distribution capacity in the eastern half of the US to take advantage of more ocean services into East Coast ports.

US industrial real estate markets set records in 2021 for leasing activity, low vacancy rates, rental rate growth, and new construction permits, and shippers looking for warehousing and distribution space should expect more of the same in the coming year.

Brick-and-mortar and online retailers are growing their warehousing footprint near ports as a method to more quickly receive and handle ocean freight, and further their e-commerce goals.

Warehouses at seaports and inland hubs are filled to capacity as operators find they must pay workers more competitive wages and benefits to attract the labor they need to handle peak season volumes.

Near record-low vacancy rates at distribution warehouses throughout the US sound the alarm that shippers seeking additional logistics space for the peak season may be out of luck.

Supply chain-focused venture capital firm 8VC has partnered with the largest provider of cold storage facilities globally to fast-track the company’s technology development and adoption.

After 10 consecutive months of record or near-record import volumes, and seaport-dependent supply chains struggling with congestion, developers this year are focusing on traditional warehouse and import distribution space.

With phase 1 of the Georgia International Trade Park now complete and a new headquarters for Port City Logistics being built a few miles from the trade park, the Savannah area is adding new warehousing and distribution capacity at a time when space is especially tight.