Shortage of Small Industrial Spaces Grips US Sun Belt

In southern U.S. port cities such as Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, blocks of available industrial space that are smaller than 50,000 square feet typically spent an average of about nine months on the market before leasing during the 10 years prior to the pandemic. Since then, the median time to lease for these smaller industrial spaces has plunged to a record low of between two and three months in all three locations in 2022, a leasing speed typically only seen in Southern California, which has long been widely regarded as the tightest industrial market in the U.S.