Terry Darrow

Numbers are just numbers, right? 102 is a great number if you have $102 in your pocket, but it's not so good when it’s the temperature outside. As a landlord, 14 percent felt terrible when it was the vacancy rate a few years ago; so, does 6 percent make you feel better now?

Nearly 50 percent to 60 percent of the absorption and build-to-suit activity in North Texas is a result of inbound companies. That's just one of the reasons why DFW ranks as one of the top industrial markets in the country.

From a consumer perspective, not much has changed with Amazon besides the fact that the breadth of products it currently offers on its website has steadily expanded. Behind the scenes, however, there has been a lot of change. Slowly, Amazon has been transforming itself from the “Wal-Mart” of the internet into something very much resembling an online third-party logistics provider (3PL).

We’re all familiar with ways to go green for in office buildings, but how many industrial properties are adopting the same practices? In truth, probably not enough. Yet by making changes to industrial facilities, property managers can have a significant impact on workplace performance, waste, longer leases (amen), and an increasingly greater competitive edge when selling the property.

At Jones Lang LaSalle, we use a property clock to demonstrate where each market sits within its real estate cycle. The clock is divided into four sections: the geographies on the left side are typically landlord-favorable, and those on the right side are typically tenant-favorable. Markets generally move clockwise, and the biggest factor governing how quickly a market moves through the clock is supply and demand.