By Ben Wallace, SIOR, vice president, Colliers Over the past decade, “suburban industrial” buildings have become more critical than ever. A suburban industrial building can be defined as one that is located within the suburbs of a major metroplex and designed for small- to medium-size users with above-average allotments of office/showroom space to accommodate service and light distribution uses. The typical building and infrastructure designs naturally limit heavy truck traffic and achieve higher rental rates, deterring heavy distribution and manufacturing users from locating there. With macro-level shifts in how people shop for and acquire goods and services, the need for suburban industrial buildings that are located near consumers has become increasingly important. Most cities have done an excellent job of regulating and altering development standards for these assets to meet this need while being careful to avoid creating rundown industrial areas in their communities. These cities have achieved this goal by elevating development standards to feature clean concrete exterior façades as well as the screening of dock loading areas and attractive glass entrances. The reason that many of these items are important is that the vast majority of these suburban industrial developments are not appropriately zoned when developers come to …
