Dive Brief:
- North American big-box industrial facilities gained momentum through the first three quarters of 2026 as leasing and occupancy growth strengthened across many U.S. markets. Limited supply of these facilities is creating competition for modern, well-located space, according to a big-box demand report by Colliers.
- Leasing of big-box industrial facilities — warehouse and distribution facilities 200,000 square feet or larger with at least 28-foot clear heights — grew 17% from the second half of 2025, reaching 170.6 million square feet in the first half of 2026, the largest six-month total since 2022.
- “The balance between demand and new supply shifted considerably” during the first half of the year, Colliers says. JLL said in a separate report that a lack of supply of modern industrial facilities is driving up asking rents in some areas, particularly as data center development creates demand from equipment suppliers, construction vendors and power infrastructure companies.
Dive Insight:
Net absorption of 88 million square feet of big-box industrial facilities in the first half of 2026 was nearly double the 45 million square feet of new supply that hit the market, helping to reduce vacancy from the post-pandemic construction wave and leading to new construction activity, Colliers says in its big-box demand report.
This trend has continued into Q3 for the overall industrial real estate market. Absorption in Q3 exceeded new supply for the second consecutive quarter and contributed to a decline in vacancy to 7.2%, “continuing the gradual tightening that began earlier this year,” Colliers says in its third-quarter industrial report. Despite the decrease, vacancy trends remain uneven, with heavier declines in vacant industrial space the Midwest, modest dips in the West and vacancies growing slightly in the South and Northeast, per the report.
Year over year, vacancy declined in 34 of the 79 markets Colliers tracks, with the largest decreases occurring in Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Stockton, California; Charleston, South Carolina; Memphis and Phoenix, where strong absorption helped offset the effects of recent construction activity.
In its Q3 industrial market dynamics report, JLL found that year-to-date net absorption of 231.6 million square feet has surpassed all of 2025, holding the national industrial vacancy rate at 6.8%, down 80 basis points year over year.
Third-party logistics providers, or 3PLs, dominated leasing activity of late, the JLL report states, accounting for nearly 18% of all leasing. But the needs of infrastructure and power companies are reshaping demand, it says, with construction material- and building fixture-focused tenants capturing 14.7% of leasing.
“This shift reflects cascading space requirements from data center development, as equipment suppliers, construction vendors, and power infrastructure companies establish distribution hubs near hyperscale facilities,” JLL says. Much of this activity is concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth and the metro Washington, D.C., areas, per the report.
All big-box leasing segments exceeding 500,000 square feet recorded year-over-year increases, “driven by tenant demand for facilities that accommodate automation infrastructure and deliver the throughput capacity required for regional distribution networks,” JLL says. “Large-format buildings enable occupiers to consolidate operations into single-location hubs, reducing costs and supporting delivery models that require extensive storage near major population centers.”
Average rents for big-box industrial facilities reached $8.87 per square foot in the first half of 2026, up 3.9% year over year, according to Colliers.
Modern warehouse and distribution facilities are commanding a pricing premium, particularly in markets where demand for newer, highly functional space remains healthy, according to Colliers. Illustrating this scarcity of top-tier assets, JLL found that vacancy in Class A warehouses over 1 million square feet fell to 5.4% from 9.5% a year ago, whereas older, smaller buildings actually lost occupancy.
National asking rents rose 3.2% year over year, to $10.55 per square foot, “the fastest pace since Q2 2024,” JLL says.
