Industrial Remains ‘In a Good Spot’

Breeze cites the industrial sector’s continuing strength in fundamentals.

LOS ANGELES—Industrial is among a handful of property types that was assigned a “positive” outlook in a recent Barclays forecast on quarterly REIT earnings, and James Breeze gives the sector a similar assessment as he assumes his responsibilities with his new employer. Breeze has joined Colliers International in the newly created position of director of industrial research.

In this capacity, Breeze joins the company’s research group, led by chief economist Andrew Nelson. He’ll work closely with Colliers’ national industrial team led by Dwight Hotchkiss, director of industrial services.

Before joining Colliers, Breeze served as Cushman & Wakefield’s research director for the Southwest region and was a member of the firm’s US industrial research team. With nearly 12 years’ experience, he’ll focus on analyzing industrial property trends and compiling Colliers’ thought leadership and research reports.

In his role with Colliers, James will be based out of the company’s Los Angeles region offices.

Not incidentally, the Los Angeles region, and Southern California generally, constitute one of the nation’s industrial strongholds; however, in Breeze’s view the sector is continuing to shine nationwide.

“Overall, industrial is still very strong,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “We have a lot of job growth going on in the country, and that’s key to industrial real estate. Trade jobs are also very strong; there’s a lot of hiring going on in industrial, which is a good sign.”

At the property level, Breeze continues, “We’re seeing a lot of positive absorption in many of the markets; absorption is outpacing construction, vacancies are declining. So overall, industrial is still in a good spot; we’re not seeing any kind of a slowdown yet and positive fundamentals.”

Asked whether he sees any potential headwinds ahead for the sector, Breeze says it’s still too early to tell. “There’s always some fear about what’s going on in China and some of the other countries, but so far we haven’t seen that,” he says. “We’re still seeing strong growth in the ports; we had record breaking months in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and other ports are doing well.” Accordingly, “negative indicators” haven’t started showing up on any radar screens.

Of his new role at his new employer, Breeze says he wants Colliers to be top of mind for both occupier and landlord clients “to get industrial analysis and data to make the real estate decisions. At the bedrock level, he intends to disseminate that analysis via “the classic method of providing insightful quarterly reports and white papers,” along with increasing the use of infographics and product that can be placed on social media and gathered quickly, “so that our clients can see what’s going on.”

Past that, says Breeze, “we want to be on top of external factors that affect real estate, including the ports and drayage costs. But I also want to communicate directly with our clients and give them forward-looking analysis that’s based on their portfolios, the markets that they’re in and the size ranges that they’re in, to customize their data and help them make real estate decisions.”