Investors are looking for industrial property opportunities in secondary and tertiary markets like the Great Salt Lake Basin. The region is especially popular with Southern California companies in search of lower price alternatives close to their home bases. Alere Property Group LLC and the Koll Co., both of Newport Beach, CA, bought their first properties in Utah recently. Other investors are exploring similar possibilities. Investment sales increased more than 300% in the past 12 months, with more than 3.3 million sf of product sold between January and June this year, according to statistics from the Salt Lake City office of CB Richard Ellis.

Columbus, OH is adding its name to a growing list of municipalities hopping on the biotech bandwagon. But the Ohio state capital faces competition from other newcomers like Pittsburgh and Greensboro, NC, as well as established centers like Baltimore, Boston, San Francisco and San Diego. A growing number of cities are racing to reap economic rewards from a burgeoning industry whose dividends are still largely speculative.

A dramatic rise in imported goods will continue to reshape American communities by prompting development of larger warehouses and distribution centers close to main transportation routes, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Maria Sicola, the company's senior managing director of research and author of the report, says the finding has enormous implications for real estate owners, developers and urban development.

As the supply chain branches out around the world, the need for modern facilities intensifies.

The Koll Co. is increasing its portfolio by more than 50%, moving into three new markets and considering expansion into several more, a company executive says. The firm is adding about 1.7 million sf to the 3.2 million sf it already owns in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The properties include two light industrial parks in Utah--the 119,592-sf Broadbent Business Park in Salt Lake City and the 78,400-sf Redwood Business Park in West Valley--and similar complexes in Colorado and Texas.

Competition is certainly less than in the US.

Competition is certainly less than in the US.

John McCloud is editor of Net Lease forum, from which this article is excerpted. Lombard, IL—Logistics costs rising at unprecedented rates could have profound effects on the warehouse/distribution sector, spurring both in-house and third-party distribution managers to rethink every aspect of the logistics chain from where and how goods are stored to where and how they are delivered. Those are among the conclusions of the 2006 State of Logistics Report from the Council of Supply Chain…