3PLs and reindustrialization driving demand

3PLs and reindustrialization are pulling industrial real estate demand in the same direction The U.S. industrial property market is being pushed by two different tenants that increasingly want the same kind of building. Third-party logistics companies are still taking a huge share of warehouse space, while manufacturers are expanding their footprint as more production moves closer to U.S. customers and supply chains. The result is a market where older, well-located buildings with strong power and transportation access are suddenly more valuable than many owners expected. (cbre.com) (jll.com) Third-party logistics means a company hires an outside specialist to store, sort, and ship its goods instead of running that network itself. In industrial real estate, that matters because these firms often sign very large leases on behalf of retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers that want flexibility without tying up capital in their own distribution buildings. (cbre.com) That outsourcing trend stayed strong through 2025. CBRE said third-party logistics providers were expected to keep their share of overall industrial leasing activity at or near 35% in 2025, and its separate review of the 100 biggest industrial leases in the first half of 2025 found that 44 of those deals were signed by third-party logistics users. (cbre.com 1) (cbre.com 2) JLL found the same direction of travel from a different angle. Its 2025 U.S. Industrial Tenant Demand Study said demand from third-party logistics, logistics, and distribution companies increased 13% year over year, even as many occupiers took longer to make decisions because of tariffs and broader economic uncertainty. (jll.com) Electronic commerce is a big reason these operators keep growing. Online retail creates more moving pieces than store replenishment does, because goods have to be received, picked, packed, returned, and rerouted across a denser network of facilities, which makes outsourced warehouse operators especially useful for brands that want national reach without building everything themselves. (cushmanwakefield.com) (cbre.com) At the same time, manufacturing demand is no longer a side story. JLL said manufacturing facilities accounted for 19% of overall industrial space requirements in its 2024–2025 tenant demand study, and it described that as a 354% increase since 2018, with manufacturing-related demand projected to reach 30% of U.S. industrial demand by 2028. (jll.com 1) (jll.com 2) That is the real estate version of reindustrialization. Companies that once stretched supply chains across oceans are adding U.S. or near-U.S. production because the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and trade friction exposed how fragile long supply lines can be, while federal incentives for semiconductors, batteries, solar equipment, and electric vehicles made domestic factory projects easier to finance. (eprijournal.com) (capgemini.com) The factory comeback is changing what tenants need from buildings. A modern warehouse can no longer be just a big box with truck doors; automation systems, robotics, cold-storage equipment, and advanced manufacturing lines all raise electricity loads, ceiling requirements, and site design needs. Cushman & Wakefield said larger users in 2025 were often looking for modern logistics facilities that could support automation and higher power requirements. (cushmanwakefield.com) Power is becoming a gating factor, not just a utility bill. The Electric Power Research Institute said some new manufacturing plants can use more than 1,000 gigawatt-hours a year, creating major local utility challenges, while CBRE’s North America data center report said many planned data center projects were delayed by permitting, zoning, and power procurement hurdles. (eprijournal.com) (cbre.com) Data centers matter here even when they are not counted as warehouse tenants. They compete for the same scarce ingredients that advanced industrial users need, especially substations, transmission access, entitled land, and municipalities willing to support heavy infrastructure, so rising data center demand can tighten conditions for industrial occupiers that need large power commitments. (cbre.com) (bloomenergy.com) This is why demand is concentrating in existing buildings that are already plugged into the right places. A warehouse near an interstate, an inland freight hub, or a strong labor pool with enough utility capacity can save a tenant years compared with starting from raw land and waiting for entitlements, transformers, and feeder upgrades. (cushmanwakefield.com) (jll.com) The supply picture helps explain why. JLL said the U.S. had 253.7 million square feet of industrial space under construction at the end of 2025, far below the peak building wave of the pandemic boom, and Cushman & Wakefield said vacancy stabilized as speculative supply slowed and demand improved in the second half of 2025. (jll.com) (cushmanwakefield.com) That slowdown in new starts changes who wins. When fewer new buildings are coming, tenants with complicated requirements have less ability to wait for custom space, which shifts bargaining power toward owners of modern existing facilities with trailer storage, clear height, highway access, and enough electricity already in place. (jll.com) ([cushmanwakefield.com](https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-states/insights/us-marketbeats/us-industrial-marketbeat