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D-FW tops the U.S. in warehouse construction

More than 30 million square feet of warehouse space is being built in North Texas, the most of any U.S. metro area.

Blame it on Amazon — and Wayfair and Walmart and all kinds of consumer products companies.

That's who is gobbling up millions of square feet of new North Texas warehouse space to meet growing customer demand.

And in the first quarter of this year, more warehouse and distribution space was being built in the Dallas-Fort Worth area than in any market in the country, according to a report by Avison Young.

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The commercial real estate firm found that 30.9 million square feet of warehouse space was under construction in D-FW at the end of March — an all-time high for the area.

Warehouse building in North Texas tops construction in Philadelphia (29.2 million square feet) and Southern California (27 million).

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About 45 percent of the industrial space being built in D-FW is leased, higher than the national preleasing average of almost 37 percent.

Nationwide, 274 million square feet of industrial space was being constructed in the first quarter.

"E-commerce logistics, distribution and warehousing requirements continue to drive the market and are increasing in line with online retail sales," Avison Young CEO Mark Rose said in the report. "Investor interest in the industrial sector continues to grow unabated, and the forecast for the remainder of 2019 is that industry dynamics will continue to be positive, attracting investors and resulting in low yields and rising asset values."

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Dallas-Fort Worth also led the country in warehouse demand in the first quarter with 23.4 million square feet of net leasing.

With all the construction underway, overall industrial vacancy in D-FW rose in the first quarter to just under 7%, compared with a nationwide 5% vacancy rate, according to Avison Young.