Sound Bites from NAIOP's I.CON Conferences

Sound Bites from I.CON ‘17: Impact Projects, May 8-9, 2017, in Toronto:

“We will go from four shipping alliances to three, and from 20-plus shipping companies to less than 10 in the next three to five years. For industrial real estate, those relationships and alliances, the ports they call on and the rail infrastructure they use, will be really important to intermodal and inland distribution network[s].” K.C. Conway, MAI, CRE, senior vice president, credit risk management, SunTrust Bank

“Today in the industrial markets, leasing fundamentals are excellent, user demand is unbelievable, it’s generally supply constrained, capital is abundant and it’s a class that is resistant to disruptors.” Jim Clewlow, chief investment officer, CenterPoint Properties

“The No. 1 decision when companies choose location is labor. The No. 2 criteria for site selection decisions is no longer business costs; it’s logistics and access to markets and transportation networks.” Diane Gray, president and CEO, CentrePort Canada Inc.

Sound Bites from I.CON ’17: Trends and Forecasts, June 8-9, 2017, in Long Beach, California:

“Productivity growth has been low for a number of years. Part of what is going on is that [the U.S. economy] is moving [from producing goods] to [producing] services and we don’t know how to measure [productivity for] services very well.” Walter Kemmsies, Ph.D., managing director, economist and chief strategist JLL Ports, Airports and Global Infrastructure

On capital markets and industrial real estate: “Development returns are coming in and compressing [somewhat], but we still see attractive opportunities there. … In the existing portfolio, while cap rates have compressed and you will see even more compression [in the future], we feel that we have [considerable] runway in NOI growth over the next few years. I think that’s where the returns are going to [continue to] come from.” Dayton Conklin, director, Clarion Partners

On negotiating with sellers of infill industrial space: “Sellers in this space are not institutional [for the most part] and, quite frankly, we scare them away with our due diligence standards and some of the contract requirements. So we understand that to grow our industrial book, we need a DNA change.” Scott Strauss, executive director, JP Morgan Asset Management

 “The data that we use is no longer an exhaust gas of our business; it is the fuel of our business.” Tom Sheraden, senior vice president and chief information officer, Prologis

“Who is the 100 pound gorilla [in e-commerce]? Alibaba. Alibaba is coming to the U.S. It has 26 percent of global e-commerce sales, while Amazon has 13 percent.” Gregory Healy, executive managing director, supply chain and logistics, Colliers International