By Joshua Burd
The New Jersey/New York Metro Area has topped a new ranking of distribution markets by JLL, with researchers from the firm citing it as an “immensely important driver of industrial space.”
The ranking by the real estate services firm, released earlier this month, said the region is “the home of some of the most densely populated centroids in the country.” The fact that it has the largest seaport on the East Coast is one of several factors that pushed it to No. 1.
“It is an immensely important driver of industrial space, which cascades down from the Port and Meadowlands submarkets through a corridor of industrial markets that include the big-box hub Exits 8A and 7A submarket,” JLL researchers wrote. “While real estate costs are higher nearer to the northern New Jersey and New York population nexus, the region also provides diversity in site selection options as well as labor availability and costs that are not extreme, although a few related metrics like unionization rates tend to slightly offset an overall strong labor score in our model.”
Its presence atop the list is no surprise, a fact that JLL acknowledged in describing the purpose of its study. Aside from highlighting the largest distribution markets in the country, the real estate services firm sought to identify key secondary markets that are increasingly relevant to occupiers but lesserknown overall.
Those efforts led JLL to borrow from the golfing world and compile the Top 18 distribution markets, rather than the Top 10.
“Most corporate occupiers, investors and developers are familiar with playing some or all of the front nine,” the report said. “However, some do not have as much experience with the back nine. The back nine represents secondary, regional distribution markets that have core supply chain strengths, which make them attractive options from a logistics and operating cost perspective.”
The ranking — or “scorecard,” as JLL described it — is as follows:
The “Front Nine”
- New Jersey/New York Metro Area
- Southern California
- Central and Eastern Pennsylvania
- Chicago Metro (including Milwaukee)
- Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
- Atlanta
- The Mideast (Indianapolis, Columbus and Cincinnati)
- The Mid-Atlantic (Baltimore, Washington, DC Metro, Richmond and Hampton Roads)
- Southeast Texas (Houston and San Antonio)
The “Back Nine”
- Honky Tonk Triangle (Louisville, Memphis, Nashville)
- The Carolinas
- Florida
- Minneapolis
- The Heartland Markets (Kansas City, St. Louis)
- Northern California and Reno
- The Desert Markets (Las Vegas, Phoenix)
- The Mountain Region (Denver, Salt Lake City)
- The Pacific Northwest
