What’s Shaping Industrial Real Estate Development Right Now: Q&A With Britt Winterer

By Sam Laird

New industrial real estate development pulled back sharply from its 2022 peak as developers worked through a wave of supply built during the last cycle. Now, demand has absorbed much of that oversupply, and in a growing number of markets, availability is tightening enough that warehouse developers are beginning to consider new projects again. Britt Winterer, chief development officer at Link Logistics, breaks down what's fueling that renewed activity, how power availability is reshaping warehouse site selection, and what separates a site built for traditional industrial real estate use from one built for a data center.

After a few years of paused or slower industrial real estate development nationally, what signals are developers watching before they commit to the next project?

Britt: The industrial real estate business comes down to supply and demand. During the pandemic, demand surged, vacancy dropped close to zero in many markets, rents grew at a rapid rate, and developers built quickly and built a lot. That wave of pandemic-era warehouse supply took time to lease up, which led to a slowdown in new construction. Over the past couple of years, though, demand has absorbed much of that oversupply, and in some markets, availability has gotten tight again. If there is sustainable demand, that tightness will lead to rent growth again, which will convince developers and investors to start building again.

What's driving that renewed warehouse demand?

Britt: A few factors are converging to drive demand for warehouse space in 2026:

• Pent-up demand. When there is uncertainty in the economy, corporate America is going to be careful about making growth decisions. A combination of slow growth and economic uncertainty, combined with perhaps taking more space than needed during the pandemic, led to companies pausing or delaying real estate expansion decisions. After a couple years of delayed decisions and as long as the economy is growing, companies eventually have to act and take more space.
• E-commerce. E-commerce has remained a steady tailwind for industrial demand. Third-party logistics companies, Amazon and Walmart have absorbed a significant amount of warehouse space to accommodate the growth of e-commerce as a percentage of retail sales.
• Onshoring and advanced manufacturing. Onshoring and advanced manufacturing, including semiconductor, defense and other high-end manufacturing tied to the broader AI buildout, are showing up as real industrial demand.
• Data centers. The growth in data center construction and operation has led to a significant amount of demand for traditional warehouse space.

How is the data center boom affecting demand for warehouse space?

Britt: Data centers are one of the biggest sources of new demand for warehouses. The equipment, construction materials and ongoing maintenance supplies tied to building and running them all move through our buildings, creating new demand. We’re estimating that over 2 million square feet of new industrial demand is created with every gigawatt of data center capacity that is built.

Compared to the last industrial real estate cycle, are build-to-suit and speculative development strategies shifting?

Britt: Interestingly, the most recent industrial real estate cycle never produced the kind of sector-wide distress that typically follows overbuilding. Industrial leasing held up even through the slower years, e-commerce-driven companies like Amazon kept absorbing space, and many developers, including Link Logistics, were backed by well-capitalized institutional partners. Because of that institutional backing, developers could pause projects when demand softened and rents declined—rather than being forced to sell into a down market—and wait for conditions to improve. Now that demand for warehouse space is picking back up, speculative development is returning, partly because industrial has remained the healthiest major real estate sector through a period when retail, residential and office have all struggled. Consolidation is also playing a role: Tenants and 3PLs are increasingly favoring larger, bulk-size warehouse space to find efficiencies, which is shifting the kind of supply developers want to build.

I’ve heard power availability has become one of the biggest constraints on new industrial development nationally. How is that playing out in the markets where Link Logistics operates, and how much does it shape which sites move forward first?

Britt: Power has historically been an easy ask; most warehouse users haven't had to think twice about getting what they need. Power availability is now changing that dynamic. Some warehouse tenants have come back after signing a lease and asked for significantly more power than originally planned, and in some cases the infrastructure simply isn't there to provide it. Warehouse users typically don't require data-center-scale power, but even smaller increases can mean extending lines or drawing from a different substation; in markets where data centers have already drawn down available capacity, utilities are increasingly telling developers they don't have very much to give.

At Link Logistics, getting ahead of that means understanding which utilities still have power available and building in infrastructure and a path to more power upfront. This way, an industrial building doesn't become functionally obsolete within a few years as tenant power needs grow—whether from automation, electrified fleets or other sources.

What site characteristics make a parcel a stronger fit for traditional industrial real estate development, and which make it a stronger fit for data center use?

Britt: Data centers require their own specific conditions: Access to power is the biggest factor, including proximity to substations and transmission infrastructure, along with a utility partner that has capacity and is actively working on more generation. Zoning is critically important as well. In many places, industrial zoning codes were written before data centers became common, so they don't always explicitly address them, which can mean pursuing a special use permit or a formal zoning update. Public opposition to data centers has also been a real factor, historically centered on concerns about water use and the potential for rising energy costs. Many of those specific concerns have eased as newer cooling systems require far less water and developers increasingly commit to covering the cost of any infrastructure or energy upgrades. Given the public sensitivity that remains, well-located infill industrial sites, including former brownfield sites with close proximity to power and infrastructure, can be a strong fit for data center use, since they put otherwise underutilized industrial land to work. I think there’s a compelling argument that this type of development will not only create many good jobs and taxes, but it will also deliver critical infrastructure that benefits the surrounding community in the long term.

Can you explain the practical difference between site work and entitlement approval in warehouse development versus the full go-ahead to build vertical? How does having that groundwork in place early help speed up time to market?

Britt: Entitlement timelines have generally gotten longer in recent years. Many municipal planning departments lost staff during the pandemic and didn't fully rebuild those teams, which slowed down approvals in a lot of markets. During the recent slowdown, though, warehouse developers who could afford to wait used that time to work through entitlements and get early site work done—clearing and grading a parcel, for example—even before committing to go vertical. That pre-development work—entitlements and site work completed before a tenant is even in hand—matters for build-to-suit development deals in particular: A prospective tenant touring a site that's already cleared and entitled sees real progress and more certainty around delivery timing than if they tour a site where zero work has been done. Since delivery delays are costly for tenants, having entitlements and site work done in advance makes it much easier to commit to a firm delivery timeline.

What would need to happen for industrial real estate development activity to accelerate further from here, and what would you point to as the clearest sign that current demand for warehouse space is durable rather than a short-term bounce?

Britt: Continued growth in tenant and leasing activity, which at Link Logistics is up about 40% year over year, would be one of the clearest signs. That growth in demand is going to be dependent upon larger forces like global economic stability, lower interest rates, increased onshoring and manufacturing activity, data center expansion, growth in e-commerce as a percentage of total retail sales, and population growth, including through immigration.

Explore Link Logistics' portfolio of industrial and logistics properties in North America.