Atlanta is a great place to live, work and play. The market is thriving – it’s a great place to be right now, said Chris Riley, vice chairman with CBRE’s Investment Properties Group, based in Atlanta, in remarks to the NAIOP Board of Directors at the National Forums Symposium 2016.

Here are a few of the astounding statistics he offered about the city, the hot industrial market and what e-commerce is doing to transform the product type:

• Georgia has 10.2 million residents – and half are in Atlanta.
• 562 million square feet of industrial are in the market today, with 8.3 percent total vacancy.
• Who is new in town? Home Depot is building its second distribution center here, and Mercedes is relocating its headquarters here, too. P&G, Best Buy, Menlo, Office Depot and UPS are all taking space in the market.
• Currently, 17.5 million square feet are under construction in Atlanta, and 5.77 million square feet is build-to-suit.
• In 2015, 10 million square feet of spec space was built; of that, 60 percent was leased before it delivered.

Riley said no one can fathom how  e-commerce will impact the industrial product. The first e-commerce order was taken online 20 years ago and sales have soared. Today it represents 7.4 percent of retail sales – with an estimation of $530 billion in online sales by 2020. As Riley said, “There’s nothing like it – it’s a dramatic game changer.”