For once the balance between supply and demand has shifted to tenant demand in the industrial marketplace. (Enjoy the power shift while it lasts, landlords. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.)
Looking out ahead of the year, DCT Industrial's Lisa Ward (here with Randall-Paulson Architects' Jim Musgraves) told our audience at yesterday's 5th Annual Atlanta Industrial Summit that some 9M SF of industrial deals could be inked by year's end. And developers aren't even pushing out 1% of our entire industrial market at this point—less than 6.5M SF of development. “We've been under-performing for quite a long while now,” says Pattiollo Industrial Real Estate's Larry Callahan. “But the economy is starting to wake back up.”
That has driven build-to-suits as well as the start of spec development here. Larry points out that Pattillo is developing a 250k SF spec warehouse, and plans are to develop another five soon. “Not only are we building spec, but we're filling them,” he says.
Larry and Lisa were part of our first panel of industrial experts, which included MDH Partners' Jeff Small, Marcus & Millichap's Alan Pontius and Gwinnett CID's Chuck Warbington, who told our audience of more than 350 that industrial projects are a huge part of the county's economic lifeblood.
Jeff also mentions that he just raised an industrial investment fund with some $400M in capital. Jeff, of course, is the grandson of M.D. Hodges and helped sell his grandfather's namesake company to Blackstone Real Estate Advisors in 1999.
But did you know Jeff also is the author of two mass paperback fiction books? Little did we know, either. Jeff has written The Breath of God and The Jericho Deception, the latter which was given a “must read” review by Kirkus Reviews and a rave review by bestselling author Douglas Preston. Stay tuned for an expanded one-on-one profile of Jeff.
During our breakfast schmooze at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, we caught up with our sponsors Coweta County Development's Greg Wright and Brenda Washington. Greg tells us the county's biggest win this year so far is with Niagra Bottling, which is developing a 450k SF build-to-suit at Shenandoah Industrial Park.
Here we have Wilson Hull and Neal's Bilijack Bell and Pattillo's Casey Farmer. Remember when we mentioned here that Oakmont Industrial is going spec on 38 acres off I-20W and Riverside Drive with a 600k SF distribution center? Well, Bilijack has been tapped to help lease the building.
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