Property Type

— By Todd Hamilton of Citywide Commercial Real Estate — The Phoenix industrial market has felt like a game of pause and play over the past 12 months.  A year ago, the sector hit pause amid election uncertainty. Post-election hopefulness reignited activity, but tariffs triggered another slowdown. Then came summer, which is always transactionally slow in Phoenix.  This pattern was especially pronounced in the mid-size industrial segment, which was dominated by properties with less than 100,000 square feet. Typically owned by mom-and-pop investors or regional players, these groups lack institutional backing and are more sensitive to factors like interest rates, rising product costs and recession chatter. Despite the unpredictability, Phoenix industrial space has maintained its trademark resilience. Rents grew 4.7 percent year over year, per CoStar’s latest market report, while 787 sales were completed in the past 12 months, at an average price of $180 per square foot. Large-scale inventory (buildings 400,000 square feet and above) has also enjoyed a recent resurgence. At the start of the year, we were wringing our hands over multiple vacant, million-plus-square-foot buildings. Since then, five of those buildings have been leased or sold, with full occupancy expected by year-end. That activity accounts for a …