Are Suburban Office-to-Industrial Conversions Feasible?

Last-mile industrial space remains much needed, while a lot of suburban office space stands empty. Converting abandoned suburban office space into industrial use makes great sense. But given headwinds, proposals to turn empty suburban office into in-demand industrial and the actual ability to do so can sometimes be two very different things.

“Office-to-industrial conversions are happening nationally from a geographic perspective but are primarily concentrated in markets where obsolete office coincides with strong industrial performance metrics, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta,” Ermengarde Jabir, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, told Commercial Property Executive...