The pandemic created many winners and losers in the ebbing economic tide, but one key winner that has remained consistent is warehouse storage. The reason behind its growth is fairly obvious, particularly in the cold storage set. The pandemic brought a dramatic surge of online grocery shopping, thereby necessitating the need for more literal space. According to Research and Markets, “the global market for Cold Storage Construction estimated at $11.7 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of $19.3 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 14.2% over the analysis period.”
We are seeing this demand firsthand, but also recognize a boom in general warehouse storage underway.
We connect this massive growth also to the pandemic’s increased reliance on suppliers like Amazon needing outposts to store goods in more locations around the country to further improve their access and retail domination. With this trend is the rise of spec warehouses, of which we have recently completed several projects. We designed these ambient warehouse units with a clear height high enough to attract many kinds of tenants and often with knockout panels to enable the expansion of loading docks if needed. In fact, COR3 is starting the design process for an 807,000 square foot storage facility in the Upstate of South Carolina.