Distribution Centers

Total estimated 2023 global 3PL market revenue was off 18.5% annually, coming in at $1.2 trillion. But even with that decline, the firm observed that this tally still represented a 25.3% increase, when compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

The company said that the new 138,500 square-foot facility will enable DHL eCommerce to process more B2C (business-to-consumer) domestic volume, supported by around 130 staffers, for customers in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region.

CBRE reported that the largest 100 industrial lease transactions in 2023 included 43 deals for 1 million square-feet (MSF) or more, which the firm describes as “megawarehouses.” This fell short of 2022’s record-high 63 deals and 2021’s strong 57 deals tally.  The average size of the top 100 leases came in at 986,744 square-feet, down from 2023’s record 1.07 MSF and the previous record set in 2021, at 1.05 MSF.

The national vacancy rate remaining low, at 4.8%, compared to a historical expansionary average of 6.1%, even as the pace of new deliveries quickened and added 70 basis point to market vacancies

In its “U.S. Industrial Q3 2023” report, CBRE found that third quarter construction starts saw a 37% decline, from the second quarter to the third quarter, and a 64% annual decline, to 40 million square-feet (MSF), which CBRE said lowered the under-construction total, for the third consecutive quarter, to 479 MSF.

There was a 36% annual decline in 1 million square-foot-plus leasing activity, which drove an 18% decrease in total industrial space leased, in the first half of the year, at 373 million square-feet. And CBRE said that the number of 1 million square-feet deals dropped from 36, in the first half of 2022, to 23, for the same period in 2023, amid economic uncertainty and waning occupier urgency to hold additional inventory.

A. Duie Pyle said this new facility will add warehousing and distribution, consolidation, deconsolidation and integrated solutions, including load consolidation and final mile dedicated services, for its regional network.

In a research brief, entitled “Industrial Facilities Near Airports Command Rent Premiums,” CBRE explained that companies are locating distribution operations closer to airports, or air cargo ports, in order to counter various challenges, especially increasing transportation costs, which it said account for 45%-to-70% of overall supply chain costs—based on data issued by the company’s subsidiary CBRE Supply Chain Advisory. This represents a steep uptick compared to occupancy costs, which account for 3%-to-6%, said CBRE.

As the current package of economic and supply chain fundamentals—high levels of consumer demand, rapid order fulfillment, inventory replenishing, and clogged delivery networks, among others—remains intact, so does the current outlook for the industrial real estate market, according to data recently issued by Chicago-based industrial real estate firm CBRE.