Property Type

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The concept of locating similar types of commercial real estate uses in close proximity to one another to allow those users to naturally develop synergies — clustering — is an age-old practice in certain asset classes like office, retail and hospitality. But the strategy can make sense for industrial real estate as well, especially in a time in which new subcategories of industrial uses are attracting capital and generating demand for space. Logistics and distribution users, for example, typically identify transportation costs as their top line item on the expense side of the ledger. Those companies have little choice but to pay top dollar for land or space near the rooftops of their existing customer bases so as to minimize transit costs. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Data center users cannot properly and profitably function without access to cheap electricity, hence the ability of Texas to land many of those deals via its deregulated power grid. Suppliers of smaller industrial parts and components are often supported by a handful of major manufacturers, and …