Industrial real estate developers have been ramping up cold store construction across the US without tenants lining up for the space, betting that pandemic-driven changes in the way consumers shop for groceries and meals are here to stay.
Nearly 3.3 million square feet of cold storage space was under construction during the second quarter of this year across the country with no companies scheduled in advance to occupy the sites, 1,000% more than was built in 2019, according to a real estate report. service company
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The Logistics Report
The interior of Win Chill, a refrigerated warehouse in Sioux Falls, S.D.
CBRE
released on Wednesday. To see also : Heydenburk’s new board seat for the Housing Council in Greater Fort Worth.
The growth of what is known in real estate as speculative construction follows a disruption in consumer buying patterns during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Americans rushed to buy groceries online and stocked up on more frozen foods as supermarket chains and food suppliers reshaped their supply chains. to meet demand.
Consumer spending has flipped again more recently as shoppers return to stores, dampening e-commerce sales and rising inflation weighing on retail demand across the board.
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“We’re watching retail sales closely,” said Matthew Walaszek, director of research at CBRE and one of the report’s authors. “If that goes down, it will affect the market and there will be a retracement in an expansion, but we are not seeing that yet.”
