18 DC VELOCITY NOVEMBER 2018 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
Contract logistics company DHL Supply Chain and sports
nutrition specialist Glanbia Performance Nutrition have
entered into a five-year agreement for DHL Supply Chain
to provide warehousing and e-commerce support at
Glanbia’s 452,000-square-foot facility in North Aurora,
Ill. … 3Gtms Inc., a transportation management software
developer, has announced a partnership with HubTran,
a back-office automation platform for transportation
companies. The partnership will enable 3Gtms customers
to streamline payables, document management, and cus-
tomer invoicing. … Port Manatee and Carver Maritime
LLC have entered into a long-term marine terminal
operating agreement for a 10-acre aggregate offload-
ing facility at the Florida Gulf Coast port. … Container
shipping company Maersk Line is now digitally distrib-
uting its rates to shipper, freight forwarder, and NVOCC
(nonvessel-operating common carrier) customers using
CargoSphere’s eSUDS (electronic smart upload diagnostics
solution) and CargoSphere Rate Mesh. … InMotion Global
Inc. has added NextLoad, a loadboard and freight-match-
ing marketplace, to its AscendTMS cloud-based trans-
portation management system. The move will allow
it to offer brokers, shippers, and carriers more freight
and capacity options. … Nonvessel-operating common
carrier and freight consolidators CaroTrans and TCC
Logistics have entered into a strategic alliance to serve
the growing import/export trade between the U.S. and
France. … Spar Kjøp, a general-merchandise omnichan-
nel retailer in Norway, has selected Blue Ridge Global’s
Supply Chain Planning solutions to optimize inventory at
all 24 of its department stores. … Voodoo Robotics and
SphereWMS have formed a new partnership that will
provide SphereWMS’s customers with simple low-cost
wireless pick-to-light (or put-to-light) hardware options
for their businesses. … Applied DNA Sciences Inc. has
signed a contract to continue providing its DNA marking
program at the Defense Logistics Agency’s Land and
Maritime division’s product test center in Columbus, Ohio.
… Hamburg, Germany-based Zeaborn Ship Management,
a global technical ship management company, has select-
ed maritime software solutions provider Navis’s Web-
based fleet performance solution, Bluetracker.
alliances
Developers experiment with multistory DCs as tight warehouse
market drives high rents, CBRE says
A combination of soaring e-commerce demand and rising
real estate prices in the country’s densest markets is leading
developers to build multistory warehouses, according to a
report from real estate services and investment firm CBRE
Group Inc.
Distribution centers with multiple stories are typically
restricted to European and Asian markets, where space is at
a premium and land prices tend to be significantly higher
than in the U.S. That rule of thumb still holds, but a perfect storm of market conditions in the U.S. may drive the
development of more multistory DCs in certain parts of this
country as well, the firm found.
CBRE is tracking the development of five multistory
warehouses currently under construction, including three
in New York City, one in San Francisco, and one recently
completed in Seattle. The common threads in those markets are a large, densely packed population; high industrial
land prices and rents; and significant penetration of e-commerce, according to CBRE.
One of the most important drivers of favorable conditions for multistory warehouses is land prices for industrial
development, which have more than doubled in the U.S.
over the past five years to roughly $30 per buildable square
foot—comparable to office rents—CBRE found.
DEMAND OUTPACING SUPPLY
In a separate announcement, CBRE reported that demand
for warehouses, DCs, and other industrial property continues to outpace supply. The availability rate for U.S.
industrial real estate dropped by 11 basis points in the third
quarter of 2018, marking its 33nd consecutive quarterly
decline, CBRE said.
The availability of U.S. industrial real estate dipped to 7. 1
percent in the third quarter, the lowest point since 2000.
Demand for warehouses and DCs remains driven by the
growth of e-commerce and the general strength of the U.S.
economy, the firm said. CBRE defines availability as the
sum of vacant space plus space that is currently occupied
but is being marketed for use by new tenants.
One test case that CBRE is tracking is a multistory warehouse development in Seattle that was recently completed by industrial property developer Prologis.
Known as Georgetown Crossroads, the three-floor 590,000-
square-foot industrial warehouse features truck ramps
leading to loading docks on the second level and a third
floor that is served via forklift-accessible freight elevators.
The facility, which is located minutes from downtown
Seattle, is designed for lighter-scale warehouse operations,
Prologis said.
