Future Warehouses Will Have to Accommodate Robots Too

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CHICAGO—The average rentable building area for newly delivered warehouse product has increased by 60% nationally over the past 20 years, according to a recent report from Cushman & Wakefield. Partly this size increase is due to the larger inventories warehouses must accommodate for e-commerce flows. But another tech driver is in the mix as well: robots.

C&W believes that clearer differentiations in asset quality are likely to emerge as some technologies—such as robotics—require higher ceilings (32 to 36 feet clear) and very flat floors.