Jose Gose | Investors Business Daily

A rendering of the planned Candler Park/Edgewood Transit-Oriented Development. The Columbia Ventures project will feature about 400 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail and a public park. Construction is expected to begin by early 2016. The development is estimated to generate 387 to 540 new daily transit trips for MARTA.Rising rents and low vacancies coupled with lagging new supply — and billions of dollars searching for assets — have ignited a booming trade of industrial properties around the U.S.

Despite the country’s moribund economic output in the first quarter, overseas buyers looking for safe havens are more aggressively targeting U.S. industrial assets, which include warehouses and “flex” buildings that typically feature offices or showroom areas in addition to warehouse, research and development, or manufacturing space.

Not only are buyers from Asia and Europe displacing Canada as the biggest group of foreign investors in U.S. industrial deals, but cross-border capital generally is also spreading more cash beyond primary and secondary markets, according to a recent report on foreign investment by Chicago-based commercial real estate services firm JLL.

Even with the expected completion of 171 million square feet of new industrial space this year, following 142 million square feet built last year, supply is still below the annual average of 184 million from 2004 through 2008, says JLL. Read more