By Conrad Madsen, SIOR, co-founder and partner, Paladin Partners; and Kipp Collins, partner, Paladin Partners Just 20 years ago, the conventional wisdom and commonly held belief throughout the Dallas commercial real estate scene was that office and retail were preferable sectors to be in versus industrial. Looking back and reflecting on how industrial has gone from ugly duckling to white swan in just 20 short years, we can’t help but be glad that we didn’t take that advice. Led by Amazon, e-commerce has truly changed the world, and certainly industrial real estate by extension. Everyone talks about how e-commerce is what’s driving the explosion of warehouse and distribution center development and absorption across Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and beyond. But the fact of the matter is, e-commerce still only accounts for about 14 percent of total retail sales, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Think about that for a moment — the current proportion of 14 percent leaves a tremendous amount of room for additional growth. Demand for warehouse and distribution space is through the roof; developers can’t build warehouses fast enough these days, and yet the market is nowhere close to reaching its peak. Inventory Growth There is …
