Originally published on June 8, 2023, by Brielle Scott for NAIOP.
A panel of experts dove into all things supply chain at I.CON East: The Industrial Conference, led by Beth Rooney, port director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She kicked off the discussion by asking what strategies the speakers are seeing their clients pursue to reduce operating costs, increase productivity and improve operational resilience.
Grayson Scott, senior consultant with CBRE, said one of the biggest things his firm is being asked is to help with large-scale assessments. “Clients want to know where their weak spots are, if they’re operating in the best locations. We’re taking a bigger, broader look at their entire supply chain.”
Brewster Smith, head of supply chain solutions at Colliers, said he’s seeing migration away from Tier 1 port-adjacent markets to Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets that are a bit more tenable from a cost perspective and from a vacancy perspective. “In Los Angeles, companies that have been in Riverside County or Inland Empire are now starting to look at Fresno, Bakersfield, Phoenix or Salt Lake City to figure out what the costs are of migrating to that market.”
“Prior to 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I would talk to companies about the need to do nearshoring, and they would say, ‘I’ll think about it,’” joked Jeffrey Garza Walker, MRED/MBA, executive vice president at NAI Horizon. Now, a lot of these companies are coming back, wanting a strategy to create redundancy in their supply chain and it’s created a lot of opportunity in Mexico, where he operates.