King Of U.S. Industrial Activity In 2021? All Other Markets Bow To Dallas

The Dallas-Fort Worth industrial boom continues to expand in 2021, with the local market expected to best all other U.S. rivals in new construction, data from CommercialSearch indicates.

DFW is expected to add 28M SF of industrial development and 79 new ground-up projects this year, representing 8% of all U.S. industrial space projected for delivery in 2021, CommercialSearch noted in its latest Industrial Pipeline Report.

Among all U.S. markets studied by the research firm, Dallas ranks No. 1 in 2021 for the amount of space in its potential delivery pipeline. Read Full Story

So far this year, DFW has already welcomed one of the largest projects of the year: the 2.1M SF Phase 1 of Logistix Hub in South Dallas, the research firm noted.

Phoenix ranks second with just over 18M SF of industrial in the pipeline, which remains substantially lower than the 28M SF expected across DFW. Phoenix, like DFW, expects a more robust industrial delivery cycle in 2021, with the study predicting 56 new properties in 2021 and a 76% increase in space delivered when compared to the less than 10.5M SF recorded in Phoenix last year.

Chicago secured the third spot for industrial pipeline development, with the metro expected to record just under 17M SF, CommercialSearch says.

In Texas, DFW remains the de facto industrial leader, with the area becoming the state's prime inland port as more companies set up distribution facilities in the Sun Belt.

Austin, however, is beginning to turn heads on the industrial front. The area got an industrial boost from Elon Musk's 4M SF Giga Texas manufacturing facility and the 3.8M SF Seefried Industrial Properties location in Pflugerville, which Amazon will be leasing, according to CommercialSearch.

Austin is expected to book 10.4M SF in industrial deliveries this year, a 511% jump from the 1.7M SF delivered last year, the research firm said.

Houston, on the other hand, languishes behind its Texas rivals when it comes to benefiting from industrial growth across the Sun Belt. CommercialSearch expects Houston will produce 10.3M SF of industrial space this year, down 41% from 17.5M SF last year. Houston is following behind Austin and DFW as it struggles with a local recession prolonged by languishing oil and gas prices.