Ind. Investment Grows 55% in Two Years

CHICAGO—The US industrial sector won the confidence of institutional investors when the economy got back on its feet, and pace of deal making has accelerated since then throughout the country. In the first half of 2012, investors spent $15 billion on industrial product, according to an Avison Young analysis of data from Real Capital Analytics, with warehouse and distribution buildings the most popular. But for the first half of 2014, this amount had increased to $23.2 billion, a boost of 54.7%.

And investors spread these funds much more evenly across the country. In 2012, the West accounted for $5.2 billion, more than a third of all investment activity, but by this year, its $6.6 billion in investments shrunk its share to a little more than 28%. And the Midwest saw its total industrial investments increase from $2.3 billion to $3.8 billion, and its national share increase from 15.1% to 16.5%.