Where Industrial Real Estate Is Tightening First: The Data Behind Sealy & Company's Market Strategy

The industrial real estate cycle is turning. After three years of unprecedented construction and a slow absorption of that new space, the market is coming back into balance, and it is happening fastest in a specific set of markets.

According to Colliers' latest research on the 25 largest U.S. industrial markets, new supply nationally is down 24% year over year, and construction activity has fallen 60% below its 2022 peak. At the same time, net absorption across the top 25 markets rose 19% over the past year. Vacancy, which climbed steadily during the oversupply years, is starting to level off, and in a growing number of markets, it is already declining.

As industrial fundamentals begin to diverge across the country, the value of market selection is becoming increasingly apparent. Sealy & Company's portfolio is concentrated in many of the markets where supply-demand fundamentals are improving first, reflecting a long-term investment strategy centered on durable economic drivers and logistics infrastructure. That concentration reflects decades of disciplined investment in markets with the characteristics needed to perform across multiple real estate cycles.

Sealy & Company owns investments in 14 of the nation's 25 largest industrial real estate markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, West-Central Florida, Phoenix, South Florida, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Collectively, these markets account for approximately half of the industrial inventory across the nation's top 25 markets.

Inventory share tells only part of the story. Over the trailing twelve months, these 14 markets generated approximately 115 million square feet of net absorption-nearly 80% of all industrial demand recorded across the top 25 markets. The supply-demand balance is equally telling. Across the top 25, new supply exceeded net absorption by roughly 38 million square feet over the past year, leaving the broader market to continue working through excess inventory. Within the markets where Sealy & Company invests, however, that relationship has already reversed, with net absorption exceeding new supply by more than 13 million square feet.

Individual markets remain at different stages of the cycle, but the broader pattern is clear. The markets where Sealy & Company has invested are tightening more rapidly and generating a disproportionate share of industrial demand relative to the broader top 25. Several of Sealy & Company's markets are outperforming even this already-strong composite trend. Indianapolis, Columbus, and Dallas-Fort Worth each rank among the country's strongest examples of tightening industrial fundamentals, illustrating how market-level performance aligns with individual portfolio assets.

Indianapolis posted the steepest vacancy improvement of any major market in the country last year, falling 364 basis points as 15.7 million square feet of net absorption outpaced just 3.9 million square feet of new deliveries.

NorthPoint One, Sealy & Company's 182,000-square-foot Class A distribution center, sits squarely inside that story. Completed in 2022 along State Road 31, a corridor carrying nearly 33,000 vehicles daily, the property shares its North Submarket with corporations including Abbott Laboratories and Bastian Solutions. Modern distribution functionality, including 32-foot clear heights, cross-dock loading, and secured outdoor storage, which is increasingly rare as big-box space tightens, has helped keep the property fully leased.

In Columbus, strong market fundamentals have favored modern distribution facilities with immediate access to the region's transportation network. Sealy & Company's I-70 Logistics Center East reflects those characteristics. Located in Etna, just two miles from I-70 and eight miles from I-270, the 437,589-square-foot cross-dock facility combines efficient logistics functionality with BOMA 360-certified operations and remains fully leased.

The property's leasing performance reflects the strength of the broader Columbus industrial market. Vacancy declined 321 basis points over the past year, the second-largest improvement among the nation's 25 largest industrial markets, while net absorption reached 7.8 million square feet, resulting in one of the strongest supply-demand balances Colliers tracked nationally.

Texas's standing as one of the country's most active logistics corridors showed up clearly in Dallas-Fort Worth, which led every market nationally in net absorption last year at 24.3 million square feet. Sealy & Company's stake in that growth includes I-20 Dallas Crossing, a 413,480-square-foot Class A distribution center completed in 2023 at the junction of some of the state's busiest freight routes. The property connects directly to the I-45 corridor, which carries roughly half of all truck freight moving through Texas, and pairs a cross-dock configuration with ESFR fire protection. The building is fully leased, in the market Sealy & Company calls home.

These are not outlier statistics or one-off assets. They reflect a pattern: properties built around transportation infrastructure and operational functionality, in markets where demand is tightening fastest, consistent with the strategy Sealy & Company has followed across its portfolio.

As the industrial sector normalizes, differences in asset performance have become more visible. Properties supported by strong transportation access, modern functionality, and well-located submarkets have continued attracting tenant demand, while assets delivered speculatively during the recent construction wave have required more time to stabilize. Development activity has slowed meaningfully from its 2022 peak, and build-to-suit projects now account for much of what remains, as tenants increasingly favor facilities designed around specific operational needs over generic speculative space.

That focus extends beyond where properties are located and how they are built to how they are operated. Sealy & Company's integrated operating platform and local market presence support consistent execution throughout the ownership cycle. With corporate offices in Dallas and Shreveport and regional offices in Houston, Chicago, and Atlanta, the company maintains teams in several of the markets leading the industrial sector's recovery.

Market cycles eventually rebalance, but they rarely do so evenly. As new construction continues to moderate and tenant demand concentrates in established logistics corridors, market selection becomes an increasingly important driver of long-term performance. The data suggests that many of the markets where Sealy & Company has invested over multiple cycles are among those leading the sector's recovery, reflecting a strategy built around durable industrial fundamentals rather than short-term market timing. Rather than responding to the current cycle, the portfolio demonstrates the value of a disciplined investment approach that has remained consistent through changing market conditions.

This article incorporates research and data from Colliers' industrial market report The Markets that Move America (June 2026), which analyzes trends across the 25 largest U.S. industrial markets, including inventory, vacancy, net absorption, new supply, construction, and rent data through the first quarter of 2026.

For more news and information regarding Sealy & Company, please visit the company's website at https://www.Sealynet.com.

About Sealy & Company

Founded in 1946, Sealy & Company is a fourth-generation family-owned commercial real estate investment and operating company specializing in industrial and logistics properties. The firm acquires, develops, redevelops, manages and operates industrial real estate throughout the United States through a fully integrated platform that includes acquisitions, development, asset management, property management, construction management, and brokerage services. Sealy & Company currently manages more than $3 billion in assets and has completed over $8 billion in investment volume throughout its history.