Aerospace and semiconductor reshoring are rewriting the industrial property map. In North Texas, Embraer’s $70 million, 200,000 square-foot facility at Alliance Airport adds manufacturing firepower to an already tight market. In California’s Silicon Valley, investors are scooping up flex-industrial assets in Fremont — a cluster now servicing AI component supply chains. The combination of reshoring and automation has pushed industrial occupancy above 95%, with pre-leasing common even for speculative builds.
Industrial is no longer just “e-commerce storage.” It’s becoming the infrastructure of production.

After a decade of global outsourcing, corporates are building capacity closer to consumers. The Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act unlocked billions for domestic plants and supplier parks. Markets from Dallas–Fort Worth to Columbus are seeing a steady drumbeat of plant openings and supplier expansions. Vacancy in industrial hubs has hovered around 4 percent for six quarters, while rents rose an average of 5 percent year-to-date. By contrast, office and retail asset values have languished.
In practice, manufacturing tenants are absorbing the space once built for e-commerce distribution. It’s a quiet reindustrialization.

CIP Real Estate’s $820 million CMBS refinancing across six states underlines how lenders still favor the asset class. Loan-to-value ratios in these portfolios average below 65 percent, and bond buyers view long leases with credit tenants as a defensive play against rate volatility. Meanwhile, debt funds are eager participants: spreads for core industrial loans have tightened 15–25 bps since summer.
On balance, industrial credit is the most liquid slice of CRE financing today.

The Data Center Crossover

What was once a niche within industrial is now a capital magnet. In Alpharetta, Georgia, a data center sold for $253 million — quadruple its 2022 price. Specialized assets like these trade at cap rates in the high-3 percent range, tight even by coastal warehouse standards. This data center boom has blurred the line between logistics and digital infrastructure, pulling fresh institutional capital into industrial-zoned land.
Still, competition for power and land means developers must underwrite utilities as carefully as rents.

The South and West anchor U.S. industrial growth. Dallas–Fort Worth’s under-construction inventory topped 70 million SF, but absorption keeps pace. Houston remains balanced near 5 percent vacancy, while Florida’s industrial markets see steady 8 percent rent gains amid population growth. California’s Inland Empire sits at an ultra-low 1.5 percent vacancy, though rent growth has moderated to 6 percent YTD. Midwestern metros like Detroit and Columbus are adding space for EV suppliers, a new pillar for manufacturing-led demand.
In turn, secondary markets like Greenville and Reno absorb overflow capital seeking yield and labor availability.

“Running 20 warehouses across the Midwest and South, we’re designing for flexibility,” says a Midwest owner. “Tenants want more power for equipment and more dock doors for automation. Even spec builds lease fast if they can adapt.” He notes construction costs are stabilizing and labor access drives retention. “Industrial is the workhorse — as long as goods move and factories hum, we sleep well.

National industrial rent growth is expected to cool to around 5 percent next year from the double-digit run of 2022–24, but vacancy should stay below 6 percent. Select markets (Phoenix, Columbus) may see short-term oversupply as speculative projects deliver. Nonetheless, secular forces — reshoring, inventory localization, and automation — anchor the cycle. Investors are already pivoting to mega-site developments and supplier parks near new battery and chip plants. Underwriting is disciplined: moderate rent growth (3–4%), exit caps 50 bps over entry, and occupancy assumptions north of 95%. Policy support and manufacturing incentives keep the flywheel turning.

Industrial discipline is the new growth story — stability as a competitive advantage.