Industrial Properties Remained In-Demand Throughout Pandemic

John Murray, president and CEO of Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (Nasdaq: ILPT), participated in a video interview with Nareit.

Murray said the market for industrial properties has been hot over the past several years and that it was exponentially multiplied when the pandemic hit.

“The amount of ecommerce business that is taking place so that people can avoid going out to crowded malls, or going to even the grocery store or CVS has, changed,” he said. “Everybody is ordering everything online.”

Murray said that as the REIT looks ahead to 2022 and 2023, it has some large renewals on the horizon, including in Hawaii, where about 40% of Industrial Logistics’ portfolio is located.

Looking to trends within the industrial sector, Murray said he anticipates a continued focus on larger industrial buildings, 1 million square feet or larger, to afford companies easier distribution. Additionally, Murray said he expects “an increasing move toward the use of robotics, thereby creating usable mezzanine space in what might have been previously unused, higher levels of warehouse space.”