Welcome to another edition of our Industrial real estate news roundup!

Another week with a lot of industrial real estate news to cover!

While we're all familiar with the huge growth in warehousing, there is another industry which is gaining a lot of momentum lately: electric vehicle manufacturing.?Billions of dollars are pouring into new facilities, both for car manufacturing and battery production

There's a quote in the article?which is worth emphasizing:

"The primary differences between a manufacturing facility and a warehouse are the size of the office space and energy capacity ... Factories typically include 10% office space vs. 3% to 5% in logistics facilities and require a minimum of 4000 amps of electricity, while logistics facilities have a capacity of 2,000-3,000 amps."

I'm anticipating?that power will be a major consideration going forward as companies look to add more automation and robotics. So this won't be just for factories, but for industrial properties of all types.

The Connect Industrial Midwest 2023 conference just wrapped up and a great quote came from KC Conway who describes an opportunity in the industrial real estate market in which?"we've evolving from a west coast concentric model to a more north-south and looking at the rail connectivity and the port connectivity."??As I mentioned last week, the CP/KCS merger is going to have a major impact on the industrial market as a whole.

There are signs of this shift happening already as?imports into Los Angeles and Long Beach are down 28% from pre-covid numbers.

I.CON West just finished as well and some more great insights came from the conference. A prediction consistent with the?idea automation and robotics will continue growing in popularity is that?technology will play a huge role in the sector going forward:

"The workforce is aging, with 23 percent of current workers reaching retirement age in the next decade, and subsequent generations that are much smaller. Transportation, manufacturing and wholesale will be impacted, with around 30 percent of these workforces aging over 65 years old in the decade ahead."

There also appears to be a consensus forming that although there has been a market pullback from the ultra-hot conditions we saw in 2020-2022,?the outlook for industrial is still strong.

Here's an interesting graph showing that demand will absorb most of the product currently under development:

It's not all sunshine and rainbows however as interest rates and fractures in the banking system are putting pressures on the capital markets. According to?WSJ,?"a record amount of commercial mortgages expiring in 2023."??I suspect other asset classes (primarily office) will feel a disproportionate amount of pain, but this will be an important story to watch develop.

Ending on a lighter note, last week I had the chance to?interview Gary Chesson, co-founder of Trinity Capital and Trinity Partners. He wrote a book telling the story of how the company invested in over $4 billion worth of industrial and commercial properties and it is a fascinating read. I've given away 10 copies of it and?highly recommend it to anyone in the industry.

Have a great week all!

Tune in this Tuesday, March 28, 2023 at noon EST for a lively discussion with?Ron Rohde

We'll be discussing the following:

? Why Chad Would Never Invest in Cardone

? Targeted Returns vs Actual Returns

? Celebrities Hawking Investments

This will be a live interview so join in and ask any questions that come to mind!