It's hardly multifamily, but industrial real estate has emergedas somewhat of a darling in its own right as the economy continuesstrengthening and performance drives up property values. Indeed,industrial markets around the country are bouncing back—and someare preparing for a bona fide boom.

The industrial landscape is being redefined by surging demandfrom e-commerce, traditional retailers, the manufacturing sectorand third-party logistics providers, according to Marcus &Millichap's National Industrial Research Report for the first halfof 2014. Beyond ports and intermodal hubs, market dynamics arepushing industrial real estate to secondary markets and eventertiary metros as US exports blow past their 2008 peak. US exportstotaled $2.3 trillion in 2013, according to the US Department ofCommerce.

A quick look at market stats magnifies the opportunities inindustrial. MMI predicts about 120 million square feet of newsupply is set to come on line in 2014. That's a whopping 61%increase over 2013. The good news is most of the product haspre-committed leases or is build-to-suit. And even with all the newsupply, MMI expects the national vacancy to hit a cyclical 7.1% lowby year-end with 239 million feet absorbed. Meanwhile, asking rentsrose by an average of 5.1% and concessions started melting away inthe first half of 2014.