Industrial and logistics marks its best year ever

The North America industrial and logistics market had its strongest year on record in 2020 despite — or perhaps because of — the coronavirus pandemic that otherwise caused a severe economic downturn. Occupiers moved into facilities in droves to serve a rapidly growing online consumer base and increase their safety stock to avoid inventory disruptions that plagued the past year, reports CBRE. All sizes and types of industrial real estate performed well in 2020, but none more so than the big-box sector, according to the CBRE report, titled 2020 North America Industrial Big Box.

An industrial big-box facility is a warehouse/distribution center of 200,000 square feet or more. All types of occupiers increased their presence in big-box facilities during 2020 to serve growing populations, be near expanding logistics hubs and take advantage of new government incentive programs.

Ecommerce retailers signed more deals in big-box facilities than ever before, while third-party