Originally published by Brielle Scott for NAIOP on September 30, 2020.
In a recent keynote at the CORFAC International Virtual Fall Summit, Curtis Spencer, president of IMS Worldwide, discussed the rapidly evolving trends that are affecting all sectors of commercial real estate, including supply chain shifts, increasing demand for cold storage, reshoring and more.
“New supply of industrial space outpaced demand in 2019, but because 2018 was a record year for industrial absorption, absorption numbers for 2019 appeared low, as much-needed industrial supply finally caught up to tenant demand,” he pointed out.
Industrial real estate operators expect the redistribution of consumer supply chains due to the coronavirus pandemic to drive a new surge in warehousing demand. A push for supply chain resilience will lead to a projected additional 750 million square feet of industrial space in the U.S. alone, as companies look to foster safety stock of inventory.