Industrial Users versus Office Developers: The Space Grab

E-commerce and consumer demand fueled the need for more industrial space. Now industrial users/developers have competition. In some markets, technology companies and apartment developers are swiping sites from industrial users, with the desire to be closer to population centers.

Technology office tenants prefer wide, flex-type industrial sites, leaving industrial owners/developers priced out of what’s available. In Long Island, New York, tech office users, combined with multifamily gentrification, have forced industrial tenants from Brooklyn and Queens into Nassau County.

“There’s so much displacement of industrial property here, there’s not a lot of options for them to go,” said Ted Stratigos with Avison Young’s Long Island office. “They’re looking at moving further into Suffolk County, but they don’t want to be that far from the New York City markets.”