Industrial, the belle of the ball
The industrial sector just may be the Cinderella of commercial real estate – always working hard and rarely in the limelight. But no more. Houston’s industrial sector was the most robust commercial real estate sector in 2020. The year ended with stronger absorption and increased leasing activity. CBRE predicts new industrial completions nationally will grow by 29% in 2021, with net absorption reaching nearly 250M s.f. An example close to home is Floor & Décor, who just announced a 1.5M s.f. distribution center near Baytown. CBRE also expects retail-to-industrial conversion projects nationally to accelerate in 2021, especially in urban cores where land constraints and high costs have limited new development. Furthermore, the strong preleasing of spec industrial projects, which was 38% in Q3 of 2020, should result in demand keeping pace with new supply. This frenzy of activity is drawing design-centric firms like Gensler into the market, who is considering creating a dedicated industrial practice group, as reported by Bisnow. All the attention on this humble sector is causing developers and brokers to step up their marketing game to attract tenants. PRISM has assisted several clients looking for attention-getting renderings and animations to showcase their projects’ unique offerings. Using our aerial view renderings superimposed on drone photos, clients can show detailed site access to multi-modal transportation. Eye-level perspective renderings are perfect to show loading dock layouts and types. Clients have also found our interior renderings particularly helpful to illustrate the flexibility of the warehouse layout and any amenities like overhead cranes.
