Analysts with real-estate brokerage firm CBRE say demand for existing industrial structures under 200,000 square feet and located in the midst of high-population urban zones could soon go up. Companies are not turning away from sprawling distribution centers far from urban centers, but are adding more sites as they roll out speedy delivery.
Amazon is leading the trend. The US-based company started building a network of small service centers in and around London in 2013, and then took the strategy to the US. As of June 2015, Amazon had 19 small spaces active in the US. These smaller facilities are often older buildings in urban industrial zones. In ecommerce logistics, they function as a place to send orders from the big, more remote distribution centers, and prepare them for the last mile delivery to the customer or a store which can involve everything from carriers to bike messengers or on-foot delivery people.
CBRE researchers analyzed 44 neighborhoods with a high concentration of likely ecommerce shoppers across 14 major metropolitan areas, finding that rent and availability for light industrial space, as it is known, is currently most favorable in parts of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.
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