Industrial

E-commerce and the growth of the digital age have become important factors in the tightening industrial real estate market. With single-digit vacancy rates becoming the norm in nearly all of the Greater Boston submarkets, existing product cannot supply the space necessary to meet current market demand. Consumers’ shopping attitudes have changed, and retailers are having to adjust their strategies to meet their needs. In 2016, the Greater Boston industrial market recorded vacancies averaging 6.8 percent, the lowest in more than 15 years. The thriving e-commerce industry has been a large factor in the spike in demand. Last year, major e-commerce tenants like Amazon, FedEx and Wayfair expanded their presence in the Boston market with new leases on distribution centers, pushing 2016 absorption to almost 6 million square feet, an all-time record. Retailers are now looking to expand their coverage with multiple warehousing locations, pushing for facilities proximate to their specified consumer base. Instead of having one regional warehouse/distribution center, retail giants have zeroed in on infill submarkets surrounding cities to locate multiple warehouses close to the population center. Just last year, Amazon leased a 96,600-square-foot warehouse in Everett, minutes from Downtown Boston, which would become a base for grocery and …