ATLANTA-The days of traditional manufacturing may be a thing of the past, but the industrial sector has reinvented itself and has good times ahead. So says K.C. Conway, chief economist at Colliers International, who tells GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVELY that the CRE segment is “the little engine that could.”

Conway will deliver a special presentation at the RealShare Industrial conference at the Viceroy in Miami on Nov. 12^th. The fifth semi-annual “North American Ports Outlook” will confer awards on nine of the nation's cities and one organization for their industry innovations. Conway also plans to talk at the conference about how some surprising markets are well positioned to take advantage of the canal widening, why New York is in trouble on this front, and he'll reveal which port is a “surprise sleeper” as well as a significant change recently made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

He'll also elaborate on the reasons behind his optimism. “Economic indicators for industrial are up and it has more than recovered from the financial crisis,” Conway says. “And ecommerce sales are now 10% of all discretionary spending; that's a record level.”

So there's motivation to get the sector post-Panamax ready, he continues. “Development is being driven by a remaking of the supply chain as ports get ready for the widening of the Panama Canal and the fact that it will allow for bigger ships.”

Baltimore is prepared, which “is having a huge competitive impact on New York,” he notes, and Miami and Charleston are hot on its heels. In fact, the latter city is creating an inland port, echoing the efforts—and likely, the success—that have taken place in Virginia.

“Charleston has two major rail lines, the Interstate and manufacturing,” to draw on, says Conway. The rails and the inland port together will enable manufacturers to roll containers on and off the rails and send them right to where they're going,  rather than putting materials on trucks; cutting costs and increasing security.

Meanwhile, Conway asserts, new restrictions on how long truckers can be on the road has made that method of transport much less efficient, so there's an increased emphasis on railways and on using  “intermodal distribution centers.”

Dallas, Atlanta and Indianapolis are among the destinations poised to benefit from this trend, but in particular, Conway reports, Kansas City's new center will likely prosper. “Not only does it create East/West access but also North/South, allowing for transport into Mexico. This is the only direct access to Mexico and Latin America, which is important because the labor rate in Mexico now approximates what it is in China.”

As for New York, Conway says, “retirements of longshoremen and other problems are leading people to avoid New York/New Jersey, and other cities are capitalizing on this. New York has to get its act together soon.”