On the heels of record setting industrial activity in 2019, the Metro East industrial submarket that includes Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois is poised for another strong year in 2020, even as COVID-19 puts a damper on other sectors of the real estate market.
While the submarket ended the first quarter of 2020 with a slight increase in vacant space on the market, the level of industrial sector activity queued up for the rest of the year indicates it will continue to be a hotspot for investment and construction in the months to come. The overall positive trend extends the construction boom occurring in the St. Louis region since 2015.
Steve Zuber, CCIM, SIOR, Principal with O’Fallon, Ill.-based BarberMurphy, specializes in industrial real estate in downstate Illinois, and he believes a positive outcome of COVID-19 is likely to be continued growth in those types of warehouse shipping facilities. Furthermore, he says the Metro East submarket is primed and ready for that growth.