CBRE: Cold storage warehouse sector heating up

A new report from CBRE concludes that demand for U.S. cold storage warehouses are poised for an increase of up to 100 million sqf over the next five years. The forecast stems from a projection by the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen that groceries ordered online will account for 13 percent of total grocery sales by 2022, up from 3 percent in 2018. Much of the growth is expected to occur in gateway markets Los Angeles and New York as well as in leading food-production states, such as California, Washington state, Florida, Texas and Wisconsin.

“Several factors have combined to fuel expansion of the cold-storage space, from consumers’ increasing use of online ordering for groceries to grocers’ investment in new delivery strategies and warehouse technologies,” said Adam Mullen, CBRE’s Industrial & Logistics Leader in the Americas. “Still, the sector’s growth will be somewhat measured because these are specialized facilities requiring significant capital, power and government approvals.”