Big-Box Wins Big in 2019

The first six months of 2019 proved highly successful for this industrial subsector, with high positive net absorption and record-high rents, a new report by Colliers shows.

The first half of 2019 proved to be yet another strong period in the big-box segment of the industrial sector, and despite certain challenges, more of the same is the likely scenario for the remainder of the year, according to Colliers’ 2019 midyear big-box market report.

The big-box industrial market comprises pre-cast or tilt-up construction industrial buildings that encompass a minimum of 200,000 square feet and are utilized primarily for distribution activity. At the close of the second quarter, there were 5,208 such facilities totaling nearly 2.4 billion square feet in North America, and the midyear numbers tell a positive story for the subsector. The average vacancy rate was 6.9 percent and the average taking rent, which has been on a consistent upswing since 2011, reached a record high of $5.03 per square foot. Overall net absorption totaled approximately 66.1 million square feet, surpassing mid-2018’s 61.5 million....