As the industrial market sees some cooling from pandemic-era highs and financing tightens, what should owners and investors expect over the next 12-18 months? Four national experts took the stage at I.CON West to discuss what lies ahead for this popular asset class.
By a show of hands, I.CON West keynote speaker Christine Cooper, Ph.D., managing director and chief U.S. economist with CoStar Group, polled attendees on their economic outlook – was it bright or bleak? The group responded largely positively, with most indicating they felt the economy was doing better than not.
Movement is key in the SoCal industrial space. Industrial real estate occupies some 200 million square feet of space in the SoCal region, with much of the activity driven by the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach.
Last week, hundreds of NAIOP members from the U.S. and Canada attended NAIOP’s Chapter Leadership and Legislative Retreat (CL&LR) in Washington, D.C., with the conference culminating in countless meetings with their elected representatives to advocate on behalf of the commercial real estate industry.
In an information-packed keynote at CL&LR, Rebecca Rockey, deputy chief economist and global head of forecasting at Cushman & Wakefield, highlighted several economic trends that will inform credit liquidity and the capital markets in 2024-2025.
The 2024 presidential election is reminiscent of a classic joke about two guys who are hiking in the woods and come across a grizzly bear, said political commentator and journalist Chris Cillizza during NAIOP’s Chapter Leadership & Legislative Retreat last week. One hiker takes off his hiking shoes, opens his backpack and puts on his running shoes. The other says, “What are you doing? You can’t outrun a bear!” The second hiker replies, “I don’t need to outrun the bear. I only need to outrun you.”
During NAIOP’s Chapter Leadership and Legislative Retreat this week in Washington, D.C., chapter leaders and staff attended a session that recognized the leading role of state governments in establishing a national network of public EV charging stations following the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
As 2023 comes to a close and we look ahead to the challenges facing commercial real estate in 2024, it is clear that persistent advocacy on the public policy front will be more important than ever to ensure that the interests of NAIOP members are protected. This is true of course at the state and local level, but it is at the federal level, where government gridlock has been most on display, that maintaining our strong advocacy will be critical.
NAIOP hosted a Texas summit meeting in Dallas last week for members of our Austin, Houston, and North Texas chapters to discuss the major issues facing the industry in the state. The summit provided members with the opportunity to engage in discussions on major trends and topics of importance to NAIOP and the commercial real estate industry.
Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan combines an expert understanding of demography, economics, energy, politics, technology and security to help clients best prepare for an uncertain future. At NAIOP’s CRE.Converge last week in Seattle, attendees had an opportunity to hear from him at the closing keynote.
