Originally published on June 5, 2020 by Shawn Moura, Ph.D. 

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated social and economic changes that were underway before the outbreak, while also leading consumers, workers and employers to adopt new preferences and behaviors. Collectively, these changes will require that commercial real estate firms adopt new approaches to design, customer relations and business operations to be successful in the future. Christopher Lee, founder and CEO of CEL & Associates, offered his predictions for how the outbreak will reshape demand for commercial real estate in the U.S. and outlined steps that firms can take to remain competitive during a recent NAIOP webinar.

Originally published by Heath Abramsohn in the Spring 2020 Issue

The Rockefeller Group Logistics Center in Piscataway, New Jersey, opened in October 2019. It marked the culmination of four years of collaboration between Piscataway Township, Middlesex County and the companies involved with the project. With five buildings totaling 2.1 million square feet across 228 acres, the effort transformed a former brownfield site into a productive asset that should create more than 1,500 permanent jobs.

Whether you are developing, investing or brokering industrial real estate, you know the product has been hot and continues to expand. E-commerce, last-mile delivery, two-story urban distribution centers and more continue to shape all aspects of the multifaceted industrial market.

Join NAIOP on Monday, April 20th and get the inside track on upcoming opportunities in the sector with Dr. Hany Guirguis, Professor, Economics & Finance, Manhattan College and Dr. Tim Savage, Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate. They will provide insights and data from the new NAIOP Industrial Space Demand Forecast, identify linkages between overall economic activity and the demand for industrial real estate, and engage in a live Q&A session with attendees.

As e-commerce and technology push industries to evolve, businesses are placing greater importance on integrated workspaces. These are places where design, manufacturing, distribution and showroom activities occur within a single building.

At the same time, companies must deal with land supply constraints, increases in space demand, and economic and population growth. These trends are driving new opportunities for industrial lands intensification, such as multilevel developments (sometimes referred to as “vertical” or “stacked”), while challenging old planning regulations.

The industrial warehouse of today has come a long way from its basic “big box” predecessor. This course provides professionals with an understanding of the components of the modern industrial warehouses being developed today, and an overview of the steps involved in the ground-up development of these industrial buildings. Explore the roles, analytical tools used, critical decisions, tasks, risks and pitfalls that apply at each step of the industrial development process. The course begins with an overview of the product type, then moves on to niche topics including infill development, cold storage and the supply chain.

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Originally published on April 1, 2020, by ED KLIMEK, AIA, NCARB

Commerce had begun to change before the outbreak of COVID-19; from the exponential trajectory of e-commerce to the rise in consumer demand for more immediate goods to the rise of urban industrial development to fulfill last-mile needs. The unknowns of this novel virus have accelerated that change to a tipping point at which the structures of commerce, and the development that supports it, maybe altered for good. This crisis has exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the market, and in doing so proved the necessity of a resilient supply chain. What will new commerce look like and what will be the industrial development response to support it? Some of this answer may lie in examining the world’s largest commercial enterprise, a company that had already set change in motion, and the one company that may have grown the most as a result of demand driven by the impact of COVID-19: Amazon. Through the lens of Amazon’s keys to success, we can see a path forward for industrial development to be part of the resilient supply chain.

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Posted on October 10, 2019

By Kathryn Hamilton

Posted on August 19, 2019

By Dr. Hany Guirguis and Dr. Joshua Harris

Posted on August 12, 2019

By Gillam Campbell

Posted July 3, 2019

By Joshua A. Harris

Posted July 2, 2019

By Trey Barrineau

Posted on March 20, 2019

By Dr. Hany Guirguis and Dr. Joshua Harris

Posted on March 4, 2019

The NAIOP Research Foundation has published the NAIOP Industrial Space Demand Forecast for Q1 2019.

Posted on December 19, 2018

As companies collect and analyze more data, supply chains and warehouses operations will most likely be improved, trending towards transparency and efficiency. JLL identified six likely benefits of big data across the supply chain:

• Enhancing predictions and planning: What do customers want and when? Being able to predict the demand of shoppers can make supply chains and warehousing more proactive. Greater use of consumer spending data through algorithms should make supply chains more nimble and reactive.
• Keeping a closer eye on goods: Technological advancements mean it’s now easier to track and trace products than ever before. Track and trace systems will create more certainty along the entire supply chain.
• Getting more from distribution networks: Many businesses only review their distribution networks on an infrequent basis, often using incomplete data sets and with limited insights on developing trends. This is where big data could prove useful.
• Delivering goods more efficiently: The growth of e-commerce has meant that more packages leave warehouses than enter them; one box of gadgets from a wholesaler could go on to 10 or more separate addresses. Being able to improve scheduling and routing of deliveries is a potential cost cutter especially when it involves multiple drops.
• Reducing risk from the elements: Big data can help lessen supply chain risk from external factors – such as the weather.
• Creating smart warehouses: Another way to improve efficiency and cut costs is within the walls of the warehouse itself. More connectivity – for example through new 3D digital tools – can boost the efficiency of operations inside, as well as energy performance.

Posted on November 6, 2018

By Rick Steger

Posted on September 4, 2018

Written By: Dr. Hany Guirguis and Dr. Joshua Harris

Posted on June 13, 2018

Innovative Industrial Properties (IIP), a Maryland-based REIT specializing in the acquisition, ownership and management of industrial properties leased to medical cannabis facilities, reports in New Cannabis Ventures that its revenue jumped 107 percent in the first quarter of 2018. Rental revenues were approximately $2.7 million in the quarter, with a net income of $607,000. The company owns six properties located in Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania totaling 706,000 rentable square feet, which were 100 percent leased at the end of Q1 with an average remaining lease term of 14.4 years. IIP recently acquired an 89,000 square foot medical-use cannabis cultivation and processing facility in a sale-leaseback transaction with a subsidiary of Vireo Health, Inc. Pennsylvania for “an aggregate consideration of $8.6 million (excluding transaction costs), which includes an approximately $2.8 million tenant improvement allowance available for additional improvements at the property.”

Posted on April 20, 2018

The Net Lease Research Report by National Real Estate Investor (NREI) finds the single-tenant net lease sector will remain "in solid shape for the foreseeable future, even in what many are viewing as the late stages of the current real estate cycle." The results were compiled from 490 responses from a February survey of NREI readers; about half of the respondents held the titles of owner, partner, president, chairman, CEO or CFO. Sixty-three percent of survey participants expect cap rates for net lease properties to increase over the next 12 months. Debt and capital equity are also expected to remain as available as they have in the previous two years. The industrial and medical office sectors are predicted to drive the strongest demand over the next year. Respondents commented that there are "diamonds in the rough in secondary/tertiary markets," and the influx of German stores Lidl and Aldi will create investment opportunities. Dollar stores, largely protected from the rise of e-commerce, have "become a popular bet for some net lease investors."

Posted on April 5, 2018

By: Aaron Ahlburn, JLL

Posted on March 14, 2018

By: Dr. Stephen S. Fuller