Owners Of Port-Adjacent Warehouses Dropping Rents Amid Weaker Demand

Despite an uptick in import volumes over the first half of 2025, demand for the industrial real estate surrounding the ports has declined to the point that landlords have had to start lowering rents, in some cases by more than 10%, according to a new report.Amid economic volatility and cooling consumer demand, rents across the 4.2B SF of port-proximate industrial real estate tracked by Cushman & Wakefield are down 4.8% on average from last year.

The declines were especially acute in California, with properties in the Los Angeles markets seeking rents more than 20% below the rates of two years ago. Properties near major ports in New Jersey, Miami and Virginia also witnessed rent drops of roughly 3% or more.

The declines are coming despite the 10 busiest ports in the U.S. reporting a 3.5% year-over-year increase in volume over the first half of the year. Some ports reported significant growth, like the Ports of Long Beach and Savannah, climbing more than 5%, likely due to increased activity to avoid upcoming tariffs, according to Cushman. May and June important volumes were notably slower than the first four months of 2025.

But despite higher cargo volumes, the industrial market surrounding these ports is experiencing softer fundamentals, partly because of cooling consumer demand and broader economic volatility...

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RSK: I think people forget that the Midwest has a lot of ports on the Great Lakes.I`d like to know how they are doing as well. More uncertainty and with tariffs in force first time net absorption since 2015.