Beyond the glitz and glamor of the Las Vegas Strip lies another, growing, market. As the metro area’s population has soared in recent years, so, too, has its industrial real estate sector.
The most recent entrant is Amazon, which officially launched its newest delivery station at 650 E. Owens Ave., in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Its third in the Las Vegas Valley, the 147,000-square-foot delivery station even brings a bit of entertainment to the area with a mural by a local artist.
“This delivery station allows Amazon to continue to better serve customers in Las Vegas while being able to support our local community with quality career opportunities,” said Daryl Desimone, Amazon site lead. “It’s important that we are a positive addition to the neighborhood and are fully integrated into the communities in which we operate.”
This is the first Amazon operations site in the state to commission a local artist to create a mural on its exterior walls. Jerry Misko, one of the city’s most prolific muralists, is a Las Vegas-born artist who translates the famous neon lights of The Strip into paintings and murals. His mural, “Aurora,” combines abstract neon colors, desert flora, fossil fauna depictions, desert animals and geometric elements.
“This mural was really exciting for me to be able to create. It’s located at the gateway to North Las Vegas and is right on Las Vegas Boulevard, where locals pass by it daily. It’s the largest mural I’ve created at approximately 5,000 square feet and took more than 400 hours to complete,” Misko said.
This delivery station is Amazon’s 13th operations site in Nevada with additional locations in Las Vegas, Henderson and Reno. Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $6 billion in the state.
But Amazon isn’t the only game in town. The industrial sector continues to see investment, as well. Recently, CBRE completed the sale of a 17.8-acre industrial campus in Henderson, for $24 million, representing the buyer, a programmatic joint venture between Unlive Capital and Palladius Capital Management co-founder and CEO Nitin Chexal.
“The opportunity in the industrial sector continues to be robust, with tenant demand meaningfully outpacing supply for infill locations,” Chexal said.
Demand for industrial space in Las Vegas has reached record highs, observed JLL in its 3rd Quarter 2021 Industrial Insight report. Quarterly absorption rose by a record 2.7 million square feet, with vacancy at 5.5%, the lowest in two years. The result: asking rents that have risen 15.7% since the fourth quarter of 2020 and a demand for land.
“Vegas is very much on the radar of both landlords and occupiers seeking industrial space in the southwest. A return by the gaming and convention industry on top of the unyielding demand from e-commerce and manufacturing users looking to migrate from SoCal has only made the spotlight burn brighter,” the report said. “Expect developers to continue searching for land sites, especially bigger tracts, to bring additional inventory to market.”
Buyers are snatching up what they can in growing residential areas. According to CBRE Research, the Las Vegas industrial sales volume of more than $670 million in the second quarter of this year was a record high for a single quarter. Dalfen Industrial has acquired a two-building industrial park in the city’s southwest, not far from Interstate 15, McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Strip. The location offers access to 64% of the metro population within a 10-mile radius and 93% of the metro population within a 30-minute drive.
Other transactions included the purchase of the 190,538-square foot North Las Vegas Business Park – Building 1 by California-based TCP Global from Becknell Industrial for $23.3 million. The company will be closing its San Diego facility to relocate to Nevada. Clarion Partners acquired the 2.4 million-square-foot Golden Triangle Industrial Park in a $335.6 million investment sale. Smaller deals are being done as well as the market continues to grow.
“Despite all the challenges of 2020, e-commerce kept the industrial market growing, at least in terms of warehouse/distribution product,” said Colliers in its second quarter 2021 industrial market report. “This uptick in demand is fortunate, because a third wave of post-Great Recession construction is starting in Southern Nevada, with 7.3 million square feet under construction and another seven million square feet planned. Sales of industrial land increased this quarter, indicating that developers do not yet see an end to the Valley’s industrial expansion. Improvements in visitation to Southern Nevada’s resort economy, coupled with the return of conventions and strong home sales point to economic growth in 2021 and 2022. That should keep the Valley’s industrial market firing on all cylinders for the foreseeable future.”
