What’s Hotter Than The Blackhawks?

Industrial is on a run that rivals the Hawks race to the Stanley Cup, which is why we’re holding our 4th annual Industrial Real Estate Summit next week to review its playbook. One our speakers happens to have intimate knowledge of both asset classes. (Yes, the Hawks are in an asset class we’ve dubbed “Perennial Stanley Cup Contenders.”)

Podolsky | Circle Commercial Real Estate Advisors managing principal Randy Podolsky, snapped at a recent game with his wife Wendy, tells us the industrial market is as hot as Hawks goalie Corey Crawford, and only getting hotter. (So if you're looking to sign a contract, bring some oven mitts.) Land is selling, prices are rising, and there’s pent-up demand in almost every sector. Any company that's added employees or increased sales in the last year will be looking for space because everybody cut it to the bone during the downturn, he says. The trick is making sure we don’t mess things up again. Overbuilding is always a risk in this low-interest-rate climate, and rates will go up in the next couple of years, he predicts.

Randy and friends above, mugging in front of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita (you can tell who's who by counting how many teeth they have). He’s even seeing local banks offering 10-year, non-recourse financing, unheard of a short time ago, as development (especially big distribution warehouses) spreads from the Chicago area all the way north into Wisconsin. Podolsky is planning some smaller industrial buildings (40k SF to 60k SF) in the East-West Corridor, which Randy expects could sell to smaller users in manufacturing, supply, or distribution, given today’s flexible 10-year money and pricing. He’s also confident the Hawks will take home their third Stanley Cup in four years, and he’ll be there at every game supporting our boys. Get your event tickets—which many say are in higher demand than Hawks playoff tix—here.