PPE, Ventilators Need Warehouse Space Too

Experts are bullish on the industrial sector.

That is the message from the Los Angeles-based CBRE Group’s Weekly Take podcast.

Host Spencer Levy discussed several aspects of the industrial sector with experts Ibrahiim Bayaan, an industrial economist and Mindy LIssner, a CBRE executive vice president and veteran in the industrial space arena.

Both individuals said the sector was doing extremely well, despite the current health pandemic which has had a negative effect on other sectors.

“Industrial is phenomenal,” said Lissner, whose expertise covers such industries as carmakers to retailers to industrial ice manufacturers. “It’s the busiest I’ve seen in a very long time.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Bayaan, a leader in the CBRE Econometric Advisors Group, who said on Friday’s podcast: “I think industrial is doing very well, especially when you consider the overall macro economic backdrop where it seems like everything else is sort of falling off the cliff. But industrial, I think, is maintained very well and continues to do so at a very high level.”

The two experts explored various areas of the industrial sector ranging from the big box warehouse distribution facility to flex—which is taking a large building and dividing it down to smaller space for smaller tenants—to manufacturing and production space.

They also touched on industrial growth in high density urban areas.

“Industrial estate has many faces,” Lissner commented.

Lissner did chime in on transportation which, she said, “is the backbone of industrial.”

Lissner said that “when you package all of the costs into the analysis, at the end of the day, the largest cost that a client typically thinks about is transportation.”

United Parcel Service, for example, Bayaan said, has “touched so many different industries and they touched every country in the world.”

Levy noted that—with regard to traditional supply chains—the state of New Jersey comes out on top.

“New Jersey is probably one of the greatest locations for having such great land, sea and air capabilities,” Levy said.

During the middle of the podcast, Levy broached the topic of COVID-19.

Levy asked Lissner how she gets  deals completed in the age of COVID-19.

“The transaction volume is extremely robust,” she replied. “Yeah, I will say that I don’t think I’ve ever been busier and not leaving the house at the same time…. I’m getting calls in and getting inquiries and request from both landlords and prospective tenants.”

One area of inquiry that the age of COVID-19 has brought on, Lissner said, is that of storing personal protective equipment, or PPE.

“We’ve had a lot of inquiries from companies that are storing PPE,” Lissner said. They included, she said, hospitals such as Columbia Presbyterian that “has been in the market looking for warehouse space for backup of ventilators and clothing and masks.”

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