Site selection involves evaluating on-site and off-site factors of properties under consideration. This post discusses four key concepts in site selection, common on-site and off-site factors for distribution, and common on-site and off-site factors for manufacturing uses.

Navigating Industrial Land Use through an Increasingly Difficult and Complex Entitlement Environment

Three things tenants should consider when a landlord proposes they pay property maintenance fees as part of their estimated operating expenses.

With such a lack of available and vacant space to choose from, companies should pay particular attention to how they are negotiating possession and lease commencement in new lease agreements and how they are communicating with their current landlord if there is a possibility of holdover.

7 key points to help verify the electrical supply of an available industrial building will meet an operations requirements

Navigating Industrial Land Use through an Increasingly Difficult and Complex Entitlement Environment

Top 10 Tips for Negotiating Improvements in Industrial Real Estate Leases

Discussion of determining the number of dock positions required for an operation without a WMS system

Every company wants to avoid property maintenance issues during their occupancy of a property. While there is a common focus on the immediate economic results of leasing a property, most industrial tenants should pay closer attention to how they have negotiated property maintenance obligations.

One of the main areas I recommend industrial occupiers pay close attention to in lease negotiations are the responsibilities of who maintains, repairs, and replaces building systems and components under a lease.

The dimensions of a building can determine if a distribution operation is moving goods profitably, a manufacturing operation produces product efficiently, and a warehouse operation stores product effectively. For these reasons, supply chain real estate practitioners should be aware of how their company or client's operation translates into an ideal building layout for any new real estate search or re-design of current facilities.

In this post I cover the basics of cold storage from someone who represents companies looking for cold storage. I review the cold storage features most commonly of interest to cold storage users and property owners when they evaluate cold storage facilities.

Lighting is a critical component of today's supply chain real estate. The use of light, whether artificial or natural, affects the costs, labor, compliance and environmental elements of an industrial operation. Therefore, facility decision makers and designers should have a keen awareness of how light is employed in their facilities.

We found that the bay and column spacing within a warehouse can have a significant impact on key performance indicators (KPIs) for warehouse occupiers in ways that are not always obvious. In this post I discuss bays and column spacing in a warehouse and why they are important for supply chain real estate participants to consider when a) designing a new warehouse location and/or b) perhaps re-designing an existing warehouse.

…fire sprinkler systems have evolved from little more than a perforated pipe to a highly technical engineered system capable of extinguishing the most combustible materials capable of being stored. Since fire codes and fire systems require professional interpretation and expertise, it is imperative that supply chain companies work with experts to mitigate any risk to their desired storage plans.

Assuming the acre is functional in shape, meaning closer to a square than a bowling alley, estimates typically range from 34-40 trailers per acre with no truck cab.

The second point to make is that as the land increases in size, the number of trailers that can typically be stored per acre goes up. For example, my team is marketing an 8 acre land parcel and a space engineering firm created a layout with 394 trailer parking spots for a total of 49 trailers per acre, with 23 trailers spots double stacked.

Flat truck yards may not be high on the occupiers wish list for their new industrial space, but its inclusion may save them time and money over their occupancy.  Flat truck yards are actually truck yards without the typical gradual slope towards the building's loading docks.  Instead, the truck yards are sloped away from the building.

For most experts, all KPIs are metrics but not all metrics are KPIs.  In order for a metric to be a KPI it must measure how well a company is meeting its objectives.  For example, a metric measuring cost of inventory in transit would be a KPI to a company trying to reduce their inventory holding costs.

Recent studies have indicated that U.S. corporations are planning on investing capital to improve efficiency in their home countries and services to their current customers 2.In employing such investments, industrial firms should strongly consider the role of its real estate site selection and improved performance.