ATLANTA—Cities and states that hope to attract E-commerce fulfillment center development had better come armed with a laundry list of assets to attract online retailers. These include access to a large labor pool, proper infrastructure, proximity to trucking hubs, incentives and no taxes on e-commerce. These were some of the issues discussed by commercial real estate developers during a session debating the “Investor's Guide to the E-Commerce Galaxy” at NAIOP's E.CON.
Panelists agreed that e-commerce is having a transformational effect on real estate. The said e-commerce centers generally cost more to construct, and it can be challenging to build a facility specifically for e-commerce.
“We have constructed 20 million square feet since 2011, mostly spec, with some build-to-suit,” says Dayton Conklin, director, Clarion Partners. “The lion's share is for e-commerce. We are being pushed to build better and higher quality buildings with more parking and better slabs, you name it. Spec improvements are being driven by the users.”
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