3PL Firms Dominate Industrial Sector As Megaleases Taper Off

The massive warehouse deals that defined CRE during the pandemic continue to fall out of fashion, but one industry that powered the trend is still expanding its share of the nation’s largest industrial leases.

Just 13 industrial leases of 1M SF or more were inked in the first half of 2025, totaling 15.6M SF, according to a CBRE industrial leasing report. That is down from 34.5M SF across 31 transactions over the same period last year. 

The total volume for the 100 largest leases came out to 71.8M SF in H1, down nearly 12% year-over-year. 

Third-party logistics firms accounted for 38 leases totaling 28.9M SF, up from 28 leases across 20.6M SF in H1 2024 and spurred by a wave of retailers and manufacturers outsourcing their warehousing.

“Outsourcing is increasingly prevalent as organizations respond to tariff pressures, geopolitical uncertainty, extreme weather events, and rising labor costs,” CBRE President of Americas Industrial and Logistics John Morris said in a statement.

“These factors are complicating supply chain management and driving greater reliance on flexible 3PL solutions.”

The sector unseated the general retail and wholesale field, which accounted for 28 leases in the first six months of 2025, down from 30 during the same period last year.

E-commerce saw its share of the pie drop more precipitously. The sector inked just seven megaleases totaling 4.7M SF in H1 2025, down from 13.2M SF across 31 deals a year earlier.

Average lease size in the top 100 fell from 814K SF in H1 2024 to 718K SF.

The report says tenants are making smaller commitments as industrial rents rise. CBRE expects them to continue growing as the industrial pipeline contracts nationwide.

A few markets dominated CBRE's report.

Southern California’s Inland Empire and the I-78/81 corridor in Pennsylvania topped the list with 9.8M SF and 6.3M SF worth of leases, respectively.

Industrial construction in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, the epicenter of the East Coast’s 3PL boom, has tailed off in recent months. The submarket’s pipeline contracted to 384K SF last quarter, just 12% of what was under construction there a year earlier, according to a Savills report.

“They’re coming down to reality a little,” Savills Research Manager Daniela Stundel told Bisnow last month of Lehigh Valley’s industrial developers.

Renewals accounted for more than half of the space leased in the Inland Empire and the I-78/81 corridor, according to the CBRE report.

But for No. 3 Dallas-Fort Worth, just 29.1% of the 5.8M SF leased across seven transactions came from renewals.

Of the top 100 transactions nationally, 38 were renewals, down slightly from 41 a year prior.