PLANNED CAPACITY: HOW INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE PREDICTS THE FUTURE

By: Mike White, SIOR, CCIM, Broker-in-Charge

We’ve all been there. You arrive just before the start time for church, or the movies, and find there are only a few single seats open, not nearly enough for you and your family to sit together. You find a seat and plop down, frustrated the venue did not have enough planned capacity.

Industrial Real Estate provides us with plenty of clues as to the plans and projections of its owners and investors. We can use these clues to gauge our market’s capacity for future growth, a chance to “see around the bend”, before a formal announcement or official confirmation is offered.

One need only drive around our Charleston Industrial market to witness the amazing future that lies ahead for all of us!

Consider the Port facilities expanding to double our current TEU operating capacity. Consider our two major automotive OEMs, Daimler and Volvo, both assembling larger land holdings to accommodate thousands of new workers and suppliers. Consider the massive parking lots and new paint facility at our airport, ready to accept a doubling of our current production rate in the coming years! Witness the new speculative office and industrial buildings now going vertical (Finally!).

Charleston is no longer a market that needs to “build it and hope they will come”. We passed that threshold on January 1, 2015. What we are seeing now is really quite remarkable. Growth is evident in every corner of our three-county market. Corporate investors have already made their decisions, invested in our collective future and are constructing the needed facilities for their planned capacity.

Next time you drive past a new Industrial Project under construction, remind yourself: it’s one more part of making our future so exciting. And get to church a little earlier next time!