Industrial real-estate developers have been stepping up building cold-storage warehouses in the U.S. without tenants lined up for the space, betting that pandemic-driven changes in the way consumers buy groceries and meals are here to stay.
Nearly 3.3 million square feet of refrigerated warehouse space was under construction through the second quarter of this year nationwide without companies slated ahead of time to take up the sites, some 1,000% more than was built in 2019, according to a report just by real-estate services firm CBRE.
The growth in what is known in real estate as speculative construction follows an upheaval in consumer buying patterns during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Americans rushed to buy groceries online and stocked up on more frozen foods while supermarket chains and food suppliers recast their supply chains to meet the demand.
