"The industrial market is interesting right now," said Michael Desiato, group publisher and editorial director for Real Estate Media, producers of the conference and publishers of GlobeSt.com. "It's always been a steady market, but right now it's vibrant, even sexy," Desiato said, opening the event.

"It's a good time to be in industrial real estate," concurred Michael McKiernan, national director of industrial brokerage for Cushman & Wakefield, a panelist for the conference's Town Hall Meeting outlook session. Citing positive absorption and a national industrial vacancy rate of 7.2%, the lowest in six years, he termed it "a significantly positive market."

McKiernan called the Southern California market "full," with a vacancy rate of just 2.5%. And with supply chain issues driving the various regional markets, he singled out New Jersey as "being driven by the ports," adding that manufacturing is largely a non-factor here these days.