Canadian Developer Rosefellow Plans Foray Into U.S. Industrial
Rosefellow, a major Canadian industrial developer based in Montreal, is planning to break into the U.S. industrial market in the near future, Real Estate News Exchange reports.
“We just see huge opportunities,” Rosefellow co-CEO Mike Jager told RENX. “The potential for us to grow in the U.S. is there and we want to take advantage of it.”
Rosefellow’s first development in the United States will probably be in 2025 or 2026, according to the company, which has examined various American markets, including Florida, New Jersey and Chicago.
So far, Rosefellow hasn't released how much it plans to invest in its U.S. projects or their size. The company didn't respond to a request for comment from Bisnow.
Though the U.S. industrial market has cooled down from its early pandemic frenzy when e-commerce pushed demand for industrial space, fundamentals in the sector remain relatively strong.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, net industrial absorption nationwide came in at 41.1M SF, down only slightly from the previous quarter, Cushman & Wakefield reports. Total absorption for 2023 was 224.3M SF, on par with the pre-pandemic average of 224.8M SF each year from 2010 to 2019.
Developers are still building with gusto in the sector, with another 156.3M SF coming online in Q4 2023, representing the second-highest quarterly total on record, only behind the 173.2M SF in Q3 2023, according to Cushman & Wakefield. In 2023, 84% of new deliveries were spec, with about one-quarter of that space pre-leased before completion.
Rosefellow, which currently has about 4.3M SF in industrial projects underway or set to begin, is also expanding into the greater Toronto industrial market. The company is finalizing the acquisition of a site near Pearson International Airport that will be redeveloped into a distribution center, RENX reports. Construction will begin by Q3 2024.
