CHICAGO—The expansion of e-commerce has transformed the US industrial market in ways large and small, and fueled a remarkable expansion that has already outlasted any other in the post WW II-era. Many investors and developers have begun to wonder just how much longer this stupendous growth can continue. But most seem to agree that the nation's supply chain still needs a lot of work to make it compatible with the needs of e-commerce, and that means there is every likelihood that this expansion will continue for a relatively long stretch, even if a few cracks have begun to appear.

“Vacancy has ticked up around two one-hundredths of a percent,” Jack Rosenberg, Colliers International's national director, logistics and transportation, tells GlobeSt.com. “So that raises a few questions.” And even though positive absorption throughout Southern CA is “off the charts,” leasing is a little slow in industrial powerhouses like Dallas and Atlanta, at least compared to the historic numbers put up in recent years. Furthermore, in the Chicago region, there are currently four one million square foot buildings available.

Still, “the supply chain transformation continues,” he says. US e-commerce sales grew 16% in the second quarter of 2017, compared with the same time last year, according to a Colliers study published during the summer, and represented 9% of total retail sales. And the new, higher-quality class A industrial space needed to help companies deliver their products drove up asking rents to $6.15 per square foot per year in the second quarter, 9.5% higher than in last year's second quarter.