Some of the best locations, it turns out, are dead malls.
Warehouse landlords say they like former malls because the shopping centers occupy swaths of space relatively close to where consumers live or near main highways.
But it isn’t easy to convert a mall into logistics space quickly. Developers say it takes a community ready to accept that the mall has failed as well as understanding that there are viable job opportunities in logistics real estate.
The dramatic shift in the retail industry and growth of e-commerce have led some analysts to estimate that 400 or so of the roughly 1,100 malls in the U.S. will close in the coming years.
Meanwhile, the appetite for industrial space continues unabated. Roughly 247 million square feet of industrial space is expected to be delivered this year, according to real-estate services firm JLL.
