A New Generation of Industrial Development

(Save the date: RealShare Industrial 2012 comes to The Bankers Club, Miami, December 5 - 6.)

MIAMI-Roughly 1.2 million square feet of new industrial space is currently under development in Miami-Dade County, with more in the pipeline. But the new industrial space coming online looks a little different than the older construction.

We caught up with Steve Medwin, managing director at JLL, to talk about what’s driving these trends. Medwin is serving as a panelist on RealShare Industrial's Transaction Panel: Outlook for Investment and Leasing.”

“The specs are changing from the last cycle of industrial development, which was 2008,” Medwin tells GlobeSt.com. “Ceilings are being built up to 30-foot clear minimum. We've seen the tallest 36-foot clear, so that's unique. There are more dock doors for the tenants because they demand more loading positions. Other specs include G5 lighting. Basically, some of the modern amenities you see in other parts of the country are starting to make their way here.”

The largest new industrial development is Centurion Air Cargo’s new 800,000-square-foot facility at Miami International Airport, which is set to open later this year. Additional new construction starts in Miami include a 172,000-square-foot warehouse in Medley’s Flagler Station Business Park and Income Industrial Trust’s 180,000-square-foot facility in Pan Am North Business Park.

“There’s another million square feet behind the 1.2 million currently under development,” Medwin says. “If you look at the overall market of about 200 million square feet it's still a very small percentage so I am not concerned about overbuilding.”

Overbuilding is stemmed, in part, by virtue of the lack of available land. Medwin says land that has been overlooked for industrial development in the past is being reconsidered.

“With a little bit of elbow grease and creativity you can make some sites work for industrial,” he explains. “Land for industrial development is certainly not as available here as it is Atlanta or Dallas or some of these other big markets where you can just go to another interchange and build another 10 million feet. It takes a lot of creativity and hard work and time to get land entitled and developed in Miami. But there are a few sites out there and they're all in play to some degree.”