News & Media

Industrial Deals Dominate Charlotte Investment Market

Sales jump 38.6% to $2.2B through Q3

By Cooper Metts – Staff Writer, Charlotte Business Journal

Charlotte’s industrial investment market is seeing dramatic growth this year, well outpacing activity in other asset types.

Industrial investment sales volume in Charlotte rose 38.6% year over year to $2.2 billion through the third quarter of 2026, according to Avison Young data.

The asset type has accounted for 42% of Charlotte’s investment sales and 38% of the dollars spent on investment transactions this year.

Those transactions have been headlined by deals including:

Retail is the next closest asset type, accounting for 19% of sales and 14% of dollars spent on investment transactions this year. Office has accounted for 15% of sales and 20% of spending, while multifamily checks in at 11% and 22%, respectively.

Charlotte’s industrial investment surge mirrors a national trend, Avison Young’s Chris Skibinski said.

Fund and money managers nationwide are allocating more of their commercial real estate capital to industrial, he said.

Charlotte and the Southeast as a whole benefit from that trend.

“In this day and age of the availability of data and analyzing where these very sophisticated funds want to place their bets, Charlotte rises to the top routinely,” Skibinski said.

Charlotte’s population, manufacturing and hyperscaler growth make the region an attractive place for industrial investment, Skibinski said.

The Charlotte region adds 135 people per day, according to previous CBJ reporting. Its net migration was fourth highest in the U.S. last year.

That population growth, coupled with the transition from brick-and-mortar storefronts to e-commerce, fuels demand for e-commerce warehouses in the region, Skibinski said.

Hyperscaler growth in the region also draws considerable industrial demand to the area, both from data center users and groups supporting data center users.

The Siemens plant on Westinghouse Boulevard in Charlotte, for example, has been a big draw for data center support users.

Switzerland-based logistics company Kuehne+Nagel leased a 473,954-square-foot industrial building at 8820 Old Dowd Road in Charlotte last September to support Siemens, previous CBJ reporting shows.

Manufacturing growth in the region also attracts investors to the region. The building BGO purchased in Rock Hill for $101.5 million is partially leased to corrugated packaging manufacturer Pratt, for example.

Skibinski cited the Red Bull-Rauch-Ball campus in Concord, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) in Concord, Octapharma in Rock Hill and Prysmian in Claremont as examples of other major manufacturing operations that attract investors to the area.

Nationwide skepticism around office investments is also pushing capital toward industrial investment in Charlotte, Avison Young Head of Investment Sales James Nelson said.

“It’s mostly private buyers buying office now, and they’re trying to fix them up,” Nelson said. “The question is, once they fix them up, is there an institutional buyer on the exit? And so that’s still waiting to be proven out. Whereas industrial, there’s very solid institutional demand; … I think the buyer pool is just much deeper for industrial.”

Nelson added the local multifamily environment in Charlotte is driving investors to industrial. With multifamily vacancies sitting at 11%, landlords are having to give more concessions than normal to get deals done, he said.

Nelson thinks investors are waiting to see if some of that vacancy will be absorbed before moving forward with any multifamily investments in Charlotte.

Skibinski believes Charlotte’s industrial investment market could continue to have a strong rest of the year.

Historically, the fourth quarter is the most active for investment sales, he said. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield also just dipped below 5% in late October after hitting a nearly 20-year high of 5.3% in September. It currently sits at 4.84%, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data.

He believes investors could try to get deals done while that remains below 5%.

On the other hand, he believes it could slow deals down, as the yield remains elevated. It sat at 4.08% this time last year.