➤ Key Highlights
Leases over 500,000 SF rose 32% year-over-year.
3PLs and manufacturers generated nearly two-thirds of that activity.
Data-center-linked logistics is an emerging demand source.
Example: Crane Worldwide’s 992,151-SF facility in McCook, IL serves AWS.
The rebound points to renewed big-box development and investment-sales activity.
➤ Signal
The “industrial has peaked” narrative is wrong at the top of the size range.
After a post-2022 digestion period, the largest warehouses are leasing again — and the 32% jump concentrates exactly where doubt was highest. The biggest boxes carry the most leasing risk; their rebound is the cleanest signal of occupier conviction.
The demand mix is telling. Two-thirds from 3PLs and manufacturers points to supply-chain reconfiguration and reshoring, not e-commerce froth. This is structural absorption, not a sugar high.
The AI angle is the new wrinkle. Warehouses staging data-center equipment — like the Crane/AWS facility — tie industrial demand to the same capex wave driving the power deals. One trend, two property types. Expect big-box development to thaw and large-format investment sales to follow leasing, with markets near data-center clusters and reshoring corridors leading.
➤ Takeaway
The mega-box rebound says industrial’s growth engine just changed fuel, not gears.
Source: Green Street / Connect CRE / Commercial Property Executive — June 2026
