{"id":1004791792,"date":"2026-03-17T05:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004791792"},"modified":"2026-03-19T00:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:58:48","slug":"industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"Industrial Outdoor Storage Surges Into Stardom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For properties that might look to the uninitiated like glorified vacant lots, industrial outdoor storage assets are rapidly evolving into star performers in the industrial sector, according to a new report from CBRE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s fourth-quarter 2025 report on U.S. industrial outdoor storage documents the niche\u2019s unexpected acceleration, which has made IOS one of the best-performing segments in industrial and logistics real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBRE explains that \u201cIOS facilities serve construction, utility, trucking, equipment and public-sector users by offering proximity to job sites and corridors while requiring only basic infrastructure, resulting in lower costs and more durable cash flow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chart<\/a>
Rent growth for IOS, traditional industrial assets. Chart courtesy of CBRE<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The data underlying the report were filtered to include only properties with floor to area coverage less than 20 percent, 50,000 square feet or less of building space, and total parcel size less than 40 acres. In addition, only single-tenant, net-leased properties were tallied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

READ ALSO<\/strong>: Busy Ports Support Industrial Market Recovery<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Based on those criteria, CBRE found that the national IOS rent premium climbed 17.9 percent over traditional industrial rents in the fourth quarter of 2025, widening year-over-year. Rents averaged $13.14 per square foot, outpacing traditional industrial at $10.85 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In brief, IOS has become \u201cone of the most constrained, and most competitive, asset classes in industrial commercial real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vacancy<\/a>
Vacancy rate for traditional industrial and industrial outdoor storage assets. Chart courtesy of CBRE<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How constrained? In the fourth quarter, IOS vacancy averaged 2.5 percent, versus 6.7 percent for traditional industrial. Restrictive zoning and increasing local opposition have made development challenging, which has driven stronger tenant retention and consistent pricing power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the top metros for IOS rent premiums are secondary markets between<\/em> major logistics hubs, such as Kansas City, Kan., Indianapolis, Charlotte, N.C., and Cincinnati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBRE tags Kansas City, Los Angeles, Savannah, Ga., Columbus, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, as top emerging IOS markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"IOS<\/a>
IOS vs Traditional Industrial Rent Premiums (Top 20 Markets). Map courtesy of CBRE<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few deeper dives <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

James Breeze, CBRE’s vice president & global head of industrial research, Americas, gave Commercial Property Executive<\/em> a close look at some of the report\u2019s key points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, one of the barriers constraining IOS supply growth, he said, is that \u201cIOS sites tend to be in urban settings near logistics hubs (air, rail, truck or sea). These areas lack available land for additional IOS conversions or development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"James<\/a>
James Breeze, Vice President & Global Head of Industrial Research, CBRE. Image courtesy of CBRE<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The rising demand noted by the report, Breeze said, arises from several sources including the growth in manufacturing, domestic energy production and increased infrastructure spending. \u201cIt makes more sense to store raw materials used in all these categories in outside storage yards rather than lease a warehouse at a much higher cost. They also tend to be logistics hubs, which give the items quick access to multiple transportation modes, lowering transportation costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to why net leases are prevalent in the IOS world, Breeze explained that this is because there is little building infrastructure to maintain. \u201cAs a result, it makes sense for tenants to pay for items like property taxes, insurance and maintenance of paving, fencing, lighting and drainage. This allows the tenants to control their own costs based on their needs and type of business,\u201d he told CPE<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, he noted that \u201cthere are few alternatives to IOS. The primary option is leasing a Class B or C warehouse with an available yard for outdoor storage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These properties may seem plain vanilla, but their strong performance is earning them an aura of glamour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":882,"featured_media":1004791806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21782,21808,21748,21783,23891,21742,51037],"tags":[32789],"class_list":["post-1004791792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-featured","category-industrial","category-investment","category-national","category-latest","category-trends","tag-cbre"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndustrial Outdoor Storage Surges Into Stardom - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Industrial outdoor storage assets are rapidly evolving into star performers in the industrial sector, according to a new report from CBRE.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Industrial Outdoor Storage Surges Into Stardom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Industrial outdoor storage assets are rapidly evolving into star performers in the industrial sector, according to a new report from CBRE.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T13:01:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T08:58:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/03\/Top-20-markets.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"802\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Baltic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/\",\"name\":\"Industrial Outdoor Storage Surges Into Stardom - Commercial Property Executive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/03\/Top-20-markets.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-17T13:01:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-19T08:58:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/61ac1450f3ffaa0e850b834c28526555\"},\"description\":\"Industrial outdoor storage assets are rapidly evolving into star performers in the industrial sector, according to a new report from CBRE.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/industrial-outdoor-storage-surges-into-ever-greater-strength\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/03\/Top-20-markets.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2026\/03\/Top-20-markets.png\",\"width\":802,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"IOS vs Traditional Industrial Rent Premiums (Top 20 Markets). 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