Knowing that the markets hate uncertainty, how can industrial investors, owners and developers make wise decisions during a period marked by global trade wars and other wide-ranging geopolitical forces? A panel of experts at NAIOP’s I.CON East shared their perspectives on opportunities and risks facing the industrial capital markets and the critical factors to consider in the year ahead.
An annual study published by the NAIOP Research Foundation measures the contribution to GDP, salaries and wages generated and jobs supported from the development and operations of commercial real estate in the U.S. One of the authors of “Economic Impacts of Commercial Real Estate, 2025 U.S. Edition,” Brian Lewandowski, executive director, business research division at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, led a NAIOP webinar to share key metrics from the report and a look at where the economy is headed next.
The U.S. industrial real estate market experienced a significant slowdown in 2024, marking the lowest annual net absorption rate since 2011, according to the bi-annual NAIOP Industrial Space Demand Forecast that was published in March.
If we were to rebuild our supply chain network, how would we rebuild it, knowing what we know now about returns? How would we rebuild a network if we could start over today knowing that backwards flows were going to be as important as forward flows? Chad Autry, Ph.D., Myers Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, shared some key design principles for a reverse logistics network.
Population migration continues to benefit industrial markets in the Sunbelt and Mountain West. What does this portend for the Western U.S. industrial market in terms of capital flow? What macroeconomic factors could impact this sector, and what other challenges and opportunities are on the horizon? All good questions, but the bywords of the moment are “wait and see.”
In a session at I.CON West, Ryan McEvoy, principal and founder of GAIA, and a leader in sustainable real estate development, noted that 92% of all new energy throughout the world is produced by solar; in the U.S., that figure is 66%, with California leading the way. “California solar continues to grow year over year, and on average, utilities in California are run on batteries roughly two hours a day,” he said.
U.S. cities have experienced massive expansion across all real estate sectors over the past 44 years, according to recent StorageCafe research that looked at residential and commercial construction activity between 1980 and 2023. Along with residential construction, industrial, office, retail and self-storage spaces have grown significantly, although the scale and pace of development differ among regions and asset types.
