[00:00:00] Brandon Page: We all spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, fortune 50, fortune 100 companies. That’s what the headlines are all about. We have 3000 buildings, 8,000 different leases. Most are not Fortune 50. The majority of our portfolio is small, regional, local businesses, and I think it’s fascinating. They’re proud of what they do.

[00:00:17] Brandon Page: It’s sort of that entrepreneurial spirit, which I think you can all argue is kinda the backbone of America. That’s something I really enjoy. It’s the pride that you see each of these individual businesses and their goal to succeed and support their families.

[00:00:28] Voiceover: Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain.

[00:00:32] Voiceover: Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time.

[00:00:40] Scott W. Luton: Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be, Scott Luton and the one and only Ward Richmond here with you on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s show, Ward.

[00:00:49] Scott W. Luton: How you doing today?

[00:00:50] Ward Richmond: Great to be here with you. I’m, I’m doing just fine. It’s beautiful full weather here in Dallas and happy to be back on the show.

[00:00:57] Scott W. Luton: It is the greatest blast from the past. Great to see a great friend and a big industry leader, especially for the show we’re, we’re having here today. So looking forward to getting your color commentary throughout this great episode.

[00:01:10] Scott W. Luton: But Ward. If some of our audience members recall, we hosted an entire series back in the day, all focused on supply chain real estate. Those are some good times, huh?

[00:01:21] Ward Richmond: Great times. And I really miss coming out to Atlanta all the time to record live in person with you. We had such a good time at your studio and all of that.

[00:01:29] Scott W. Luton: Well, we’re gonna do it again soon and maybe this great show we got here today is gonna help us move in that direction. But today folks, we’re running it back. Along those lines, as we’ve assembled one heck of a panel of industry leaders to help us all better understand a variety of things, get your pencils ready.

[00:01:44] Scott W. Luton: Some of the top industrial real estate demand drivers right now. Uh, how emerging industries are factoring into the whole equation. Hey, what are a few of the most dynamic markets? What are some of the biggest headwinds that business leaders, especially in real estate, are being faced with? And how we’re leading supply chain firms leveraging AI and all the other innovative technology out there.

[00:02:05] Scott W. Luton: To advance and break new ground, solve old problems, solve new problems, and all that, and so much more. Ward, given all of your significant contributions in this space, I’m looking forward to your take on these topics and more today. You ready? You buckled in? Ready to go?

[00:02:19] Ward Richmond: Ready to go. Scott, let’s do this.

[00:02:22] Scott W. Luton: Ward, you’re always ready to go. So folks out there stick around for a great conversation. It’s gonna offer up tons of action insights by the truckload. And if they’re not actionable, just how good are they? I don’t know. Oh, let’s welcome in. Our wonderful guest joining us today, uh, Brandon Page, Executive Vice President, head of Leasing and Customer Solutions with Link Logistics.

[00:02:42] Scott W. Luton: Brandon, how you doing? Doing great. Thanks for having me. Great to have you back. And y’all have continued moving Mountain since the last time you joined us. We’re gonna touch on that in just a second. And you’re bringing another dynamo with you. Glenn Wiley, senior Managing Director, east Region with Link Logistics.

[00:02:57] Scott W. Luton: Glenn, how you doing?

[00:02:58] Glenn Wylie: Good to see you. Thanks for having us, Lord. Good to see you buddy. Good to see you guys.

[00:03:02] Scott W. Luton: We not taking anything away from your, do your um, uh, accent. But Glenn, you take me back like I’m back in Aiken County, uh, playing football on Saturdays. I swear we might be second cousins, my friend.

[00:03:15] Scott W. Luton: We

[00:03:15] Glenn Wylie: could be.

[00:03:16] Scott W. Luton: So, but Brandon, last time you joined us, uh, we talked about your, uh, your baseball prowess. ’cause as much prowess you got in real estate, man, you’re quite the baseball player. Back in the day, uh, you were a pitcher on the University of Utah baseball team, AKA, the Utes. And currently you coach your son’s baseball team.

[00:03:35] Scott W. Luton: I gotta ask you, as part of our fun warmup question, what’s been one of your favorite baseball experiences? Probably not a very fair question, but Brandon, what, what say you

[00:03:43] Brandon Page: It’s one of my favorite stories of when I was playing, this is a long time ago. We’re all, we’re all has beens now, uh, but we were actually playing Wichita State on the road.

[00:03:51] Brandon Page: And, you know, back in the late nineties, Wichita State was a perennial top fight program where the mighty Utah Utes. Coming out of the gym into, uh, Wichita, it’s like 20 degrees. This is like mid-February. And, uh, we were actually pretty good. We, we touched, um, the upper half of the top 25, but I still, still think that’s part of the top 25 my freshman year.

[00:04:12] Brandon Page: But I’m this, you know, wide-eyed kid from Billings, Montana, no idea what’s going on. Um, we go out there and absolutely smack Wichita saved the first game I came in, I actually got save one of my like, career highlights, which, which was awesome. That’s not the funny part. The the best part, which is the funny part is, um, the next day we went to warm up.

[00:04:31] Brandon Page: We had a double header. Uh, it was on a Saturday, played Friday night in the double letter Saturday and flew out and the team was nowhere to be found and like never saw them coming out and hitting, never saw them taking infill. They didn’t even play catch. I’m like, well, it’s kind of weird. It’s cold out.

[00:04:44] Brandon Page: Maybe they’re just inside and. Um, they walked out on the field and absolutely rubbed us for two straight games. And I think, like at the time I didn’t really understand, but the reality is we were never supposed to go in there and beat them in the first place. And the fact that they didn’t even give us the respect to actually warm up and they just came out and pounded us for oh my gosh, new straight games.

[00:05:01] Brandon Page: It’s a, it’s a classic story.

[00:05:03] Scott W. Luton: Oh man. That is a good with Now Ward, have you ever been to Wichita, Kansas? I have.

[00:05:08] Ward Richmond: I went there when I toured in my band, when I was in my twenties.

[00:05:12] Scott W. Luton: Okay. So we’re gonna have to all exchange some other Wichita stories after these podcast, but Brandon, one more quick question.

[00:05:19] Scott W. Luton: What was your go-to pitch being a big closer outta the, the Ute bullpen?

[00:05:23] Brandon Page: I definitely was a plus slider. Um, I, you know, nowadays guys throw a hundred miles an hour. I don’t think anybody did back then. We were, if you hit 90, you were, you were good. But I was, I was definitely a, a plus plus slider, which got me out of a lot of jams and Oh man,

[00:05:36] Scott W. Luton: love it.

[00:05:36] Scott W. Luton: Love it. We’ll see, we’ll see if your sun follow in your footsteps. We’re working on it.

[00:05:40] Brandon Page: Yeah,

[00:05:40] Scott W. Luton: we’re working on it. Alright, Glen, you and I have a lot of things in common, as I was kinda alluding to earlier, but what we hear is when you’re not doing big things in real estate and industry, we can find Glenn and your family on a boat or at a Clemson football game, go Tigers when he, when, um, and especially maybe in the tailgate section of those football games.

[00:06:02] Scott W. Luton: So, I gotta ask you, Glen, we really lean on comfort food this season. What’s been your go-to tailgate food when you’re up there for a football game?

[00:06:10] Glenn Wylie: I would say the tailgate for Clemson this year is much more exciting than the performance on the field. So, um, you know, we’ve tried it all. We’ve had barbecue, we’ve had burgers, you know, the, the casseroles, you, you try to get fancy at times to do some shrimp and grits, but you know, the one thing that really, it always gets eaten and the people in the southeast, it’s the Publix.

[00:06:33] Glenn Wylie: Uh, popcorn chicken. Yes. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot outta the fry or has been all day, it is always gone at the end of the day. So I wish I had some fancy family recipe that I could give your listeners, but um, no. It’s simply small fried chicken bites at the end of the day.

[00:06:50] Scott W. Luton: Go to Publix, Glen. It’s go to Publix, right?

[00:06:52] Scott W. Luton: It’s go, that’s right,

[00:06:53] Glenn Wylie: that’s right.

[00:06:54] Scott W. Luton: You’re, you’re spot on. And everybody loves popping into Publix and or calling those orders in. I’ve spoken to several Publix store managers because of the demand for their chickens off the charts. They can’t hire enough talent to keep those chicken factories going ’cause everybody goes to a game.

[00:07:09] Scott W. Luton: Alright, so Ward, he rattled off. Glenn rattle off, let’s see, barbecue casserole, shrimp of grits and Publix chicken out of all those war, what’s your favorite?

[00:07:17] Ward Richmond: I’m gonna have to go with the cheeseburger man. Johnny ’cause straight up cheeseburger at a tailgate. You can’t go wrong with that.

[00:07:23] Scott W. Luton: All right, so brands and Glen, I can’t wait to learn a lot more from you both, especially when it comes to industry real estate.

[00:07:29] Scott W. Luton: But hey Ward, you’ve had no shortage of projects outside of, um, of industry, uh, since we had that great series back in the day. You’ve got trucking on your own podcast series, which is eclipsed 150 episodes outstanding. And when, um, you don’t tour the world like you used to, but I still see you, uh, cranking out great music.

[00:07:50] Scott W. Luton: I gotta ask you, what’s one been one of your favorite recent new songs or conversations?

[00:07:55] Ward Richmond: I just released a song and it’s called The Non-Alcoholic Beer Drinking Man. So I would highly suggest you go check that on on Spotify. It’s under my name. As you know, I’m a non-alcoholic beer drinker man. I stopped drinking alcohol and a few years ago, so I wrote a song about it.

[00:08:12] Voiceover: Oh, I love

[00:08:12] Ward Richmond: it. I’ll tell you, I saw a meme on the internet. It showed a guy who looked a little beaten down by life and he was drinking in O’Doul’s. And the meme said, when you see someone drinking a non-alcoholic beer, you know, they’ve seen some stuff.

[00:08:27] Scott W. Luton: I love it. Uh, Lord, keep up the great work, man. I love the creative side.

[00:08:31] Scott W. Luton: Of course, I’m a big fan of what you do out in the industry and we’ve got a great, uh, between you and Glenn and Brandon. We got movers and shakers here, so let’s get on into business. Our main theme here today, of course, is gonna be supply chain real estate. Right? Uh, I wanna level set on some topics first, though, especially Brandon and Glenn.

[00:08:47] Scott W. Luton: Brandon, if you would, for those that, uh, are newer audience members that may have missed your interview from, uh, two or three years ago. Tell us briefly about yourself and in a nutshell, what Link Logistics does.

[00:08:58] Brandon Page: You know, I’m links, EDP of leasing, um, lead our customer solutions group. Uh, oversee our credit risk management team, and then we have an internal supply chain board that I help manage as well.

[00:09:08] Brandon Page: I’m based out of Park City. I’m actually coming in, uh, to you live today from New York City, meeting with our supply chain board here tomorrow as well. I started back with Blackstone in 2013 with our original industrial platform, IndCor Properties that was ultimately sold to GLP rejoined Blackstone in 2017 when they decided they wanted to have a longstanding industrial presence that sort of became Link Logistics.

[00:09:29] Brandon Page: Link Logistics today operates nearly 3000 buildings, totaling, you know, roughly 500 million square feet, coast to coast, 8,000 different customers. And 3000 individual assets. So it’s a, it’s a really big portfolio coast to coast thing. We like to tout that, you know, 5% of us GDP runs through our facilities.

[00:09:47] Brandon Page: You know, most of my efforts today really revolve around helping customers, um, in helping position Link as a partner of choice with our customers and most active occupiers. That basically means I spend too much time on an airplane. I’m meeting with both brokers as well as the large occupiers and, uh, you know, trying to figure out how do we do more business with them.

[00:10:05] Scott W. Luton: The in person is still, we’ve come a long way remotely, but the in person especially closing big deals is, uh, almost irreplaceable. And I, I’m assuming Brandon, when you said Park City, you’re not talking Park City, Kansas, you’re probably talking Park City, Utah, is that

[00:10:17] Brandon Page: right? Correct, yeah. This is, uh, park City, Utah.

[00:10:20] Brandon Page: A little, little bit higher elevation than the Kansas, same amount of cold, but.

[00:10:24] Scott W. Luton: Just a lot, a lot more snow, uh, uh, uh, snow skiing too, probably. Uh, Glen, now that we’ve got the run done on Brandon and what Link Logistics does, and I love that five 5% GDP figure. Glen, tell us about your role.

[00:10:37] Glenn Wylie: I’m senior managing director for the East region at Link and, um, really responsible for the full operating performance of the region.

[00:10:44] Glenn Wylie: And for us, it’s about 130 million square feet. We have offices and portfolio from Boston to Miami. It’s about 125. Leasing management and construction team members dedicated strictly to the east region. Been in the industrial world now, gosh, almost 20 years. Started with a group called CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust through several mergers, acquisitions.

[00:11:09] Glenn Wylie: Few more gray hairs, found myself at link and similar to Brandon, have been here since link’s in section. Uh, about seven years ago.

[00:11:17] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding, outstanding in Boston to, to Miami. There’s probably some big similarities and some really big differences between those two markets, Glen,

[00:11:25] Glenn Wylie: my guess is we’ll get into that at some point in this, uh, discussion.

[00:11:29] Scott W. Luton: Undoubtedly, uh, ward. Now I gotta ask you, now that we, I’ve learned more about both Brandon and Glen, do you ever see these guys out in the industry making it happen? Conferences?

[00:11:37] Ward Richmond: I do. I was about to say, we should have done this podcast when we were all in Telluride this summer. So that’s the last time I saw we were all three together there in June.

[00:11:47] Ward Richmond: And, uh, but yeah, I’ve, I, I work on transactions with Link there. I just did a deal with them in Dallas that I got wrapped up and we got one done in Miami as well in Glen’s region. And it’s always great to work with these guys and fun to be on here. The podcast today.

[00:12:03] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding. And Ward, when I was with you in Dallas, not as exciting as Telluride, but I was learning about a Dallas stock exchanger opening up out in Dallas.

[00:12:12] Scott W. Luton: Has that come to fruition yet, ward?

[00:12:13] Ward Richmond: I have no idea on that. I probably should. I don’t know if you knew this about me, but I don’t read. I don’t watch you read the news. Really? I stopped doing that. I only read the Wall Street Journal. Supply chain logistics report. You would appreciate that. And then I, I don’t really pay attention to too much else, but I definitely am not aware of the Dallas Stock Exchange.

[00:12:34] Ward Richmond: I probably should be, but there you go.

[00:12:38] Scott W. Luton: How about that? Everything’s, you can wipe

[00:12:39] Ward Richmond: simple.

[00:12:40] Scott W. Luton: Hey, simplicity is a great thing. Everything’s bigger in Texas. To our listeners out there and check that out. How about that? That’s gonna rival the New York Stock Exchange. Um, okay, so we referenced earlier, Glenn, Brandon, and Ward that we interviewed you, Brandon, and a colleague on supply chain now about three years ago.

[00:12:59] Scott W. Luton: And man, so much has changed in three months and certainly three years ago. So, Brandon, tell me, uh, how has the industrial real estate sector changed the most? What’s a couple of your top observations in terms of how the market looked three years ago

[00:13:11] Brandon Page: as often joke, like, could we be teleported back to 2022?

[00:13:14] Brandon Page: It was a little bit more fun from the landlord side than it has been here over the last couple of years. The reality is that was like a once in a career cycle, you know? Relentless demand record, high leasing record, low vacancy record, high rent growth. I mean, it was just like the perfect storm from a landlord’s perspective, it’s also not sustainable.

[00:13:36] Brandon Page: I, I, it’s probably not the healthiest of markets either. Trees don’t, you know, grow forever as we say. So, you know, I hope I’m wrong and I hope demand comes back to that point. But, you know, I would say as we look at, you know, benchmarking market stats year to year, COVID years, sort of, you sort of take ’em out of the equation.

[00:13:51] Brandon Page: You kinda look back to like 19, how is demand and how is occupancy and all those relative, and you just sort of take those couple of years out because it, it was such a, i I would say it’s really, really become a much more methodical, calculated, risk averse customer base. And they feel the pressure.

[00:14:06] Brandon Page: There’s, there’s rising costs in all aspects of their business, shrinking margins and, and, and you do have availability in most markets. So the lease it now and figure it out later mentality is definitely to the wayside and. There’s a lot more emphasis on checking, double checking, triple checking, multiple levels, approvals, et cetera, that draw the process out.

[00:14:24] Scott W. Luton: So not so much wild, wild west in this space as opposed to three years ago that phrase you said, lease it and figured out later. Interesting times. Interesting. A lot more focus and targeting. Uh, Glen, what do you see how things have evolved in the last three years?

[00:14:39] Glenn Wylie: Yeah, I mean, Brandon touched on it. So 22, I guess would’ve been that timeframe.

[00:14:42] Glenn Wylie: We were coming off one of the hottest real estate cycles that was reflected in a lot of our numbers. Downtime was significantly reduced from where it is today. Rates were continuing to climb at a pretty rapid pace and most of the markets that, that we, we cover and own in. And to Brandon’s point, you know, customers lacked options.

[00:15:00] Glenn Wylie: It created this frenzied leasing environment. Fast forward to today and you know, customer decision making is much more thorough. It’s taking longer. We see obviously that reflected in the numbers. You’re playing through some, some uncertainty in the economy. You layer in automation, new power requirements for our customers.

[00:15:23] Glenn Wylie: We have certain markets that are unders supplied. We have certain markets that have higher availability. I’m sure we’ll get into it, but you layer in AI and I mean, frankly, it’s, it’s a really fun time to be in this business and see where everything is, is trending.

[00:15:36] Scott W. Luton: I’m with you and we’re gonna get, and you’re right, we’re gonna get into all of that, and then some ward, uh, we’ve heard there from Brandon and Glenn how things evolved in the last three years.

[00:15:44] Scott W. Luton: Are you seeing a lot of the same?

[00:15:45] Ward Richmond: Yeah, very much of the same. And yeah, the COVID years and the, you know, the post pandemic boom that occurred, it really made it a tough market to do deals as a. A person that represents tenants in the marketplace because the supply was so limited and the rates were skyrocketing and then it swung back down.

[00:16:07] Ward Richmond: And a lot of it, I mean, a lot of the users were scrambling to get space as fast as possible during that time because there was such limited space. And then when the e-commerce numbers dropped back down and that demand shifted, I mean, really a lot of tenants were stuck with way too much space, which has led to very like, kind a newly conservative approach that I’ve never really witnessed until in recent years.

[00:16:32] Ward Richmond: And I think there was wrapping their arms around what is this new conservative approach going to be moving forward so we don’t get in this situation again? And I feel like that’s kind of started to level out now, and everybody’s got a new grasp on how decisions are gonna be made, which is a new, a new way.

[00:16:51] Ward Richmond: Uh, and, uh, yeah, and hope, I mean, I’m hopeful. It just remains like a nice, steady. Growth pattern like we witnessed for the decade before COVID pl decade plus, and I think that makes everybody’s lives better. I’m with you.

[00:17:06] Brandon Page: Uh, most are good times too. Like I think we all forget, you know, it, the markets don’t feel fantastic, but the reality is pre COVID we’re ride in line are better than most of those leasing markets.

[00:17:15] Brandon Page: So it’s like, it’s almost like when you drove, uh, you know, you were fine driving the rickety old truck until you, you got in a brand new BMW and then you thought your truck wasn’t great. Well, it’s sort of that sports car versus steady Eddie truck that, uh, Russell with. That’s right.

[00:17:30] Scott W. Luton: That’s the thing.

[00:17:30] Scott W. Luton: Brandon, I’m still in the truck. No one let me know that I could upgrade to the Beamer. Man. I’m behind times. So we’ll see what the new year brings us. But let me ask you this, Brandon and Glenn and, and Warren will get your take two. So. Both of y’all kind of described the evolution, you know, over the last three years, and if we take it all the way back to the pandemic, what has surprised you the most?

[00:17:53] Scott W. Luton: Was there one big surprise since the pandemic here in the post pandemic industrial market that surprised you the most? Brandon?

[00:18:01] Brandon Page: Yeah, I, I would say, you know, many of the a different asset classes have seen these really crazy swings in demand. You know, values are all over the place. Cap rates all over the place.

[00:18:10] Brandon Page: Industrial rents have moderated and look, they’ve gone down in some markets, cap rates have widened a little bit, but again, like we talked about earlier, 3% cap rates probably weren’t sustainable to begin with. But I think if you look, you like step back at the returns that industrials delivered overall and will continue to deliver, I think it’s really remarkable.

[00:18:26] Brandon Page: Consumers want products faster. E-commerce penetration continues. Onshoring and Nearshoring has provided, you know, real tailwinds for the demand side and in a lot of the different regions as well.

[00:18:37] Scott W. Luton: A lot of resilience of what I’m hearing, kind of the greater theme you’re sharing there, Brandon. Absolutely.

[00:18:42] Scott W. Luton: Glenn, how about you? What’s the biggest surprise here in the Post? Yeah.

[00:18:45] Glenn Wylie: You know, a lot has changed, as we’ve alluded to. We’ve talked about, I, I do think a lot has, has stayed the same. And we’ll talk about automation, we’ll discuss new power requirements. You know, ward mentioned it. We, we were together in Colorado, we’re, we’re laughing about and being at a tailgate.

[00:18:59] Glenn Wylie: You know, two things that really matter in this business are relationships and getting the product to consumers as quickly as possible. And, you know, from a relationship perspective, we’re gonna continue to cater to our customers. And you know, Brandon will touch on it. We’re just coming off our customer council where we met with 20 to 30 of the top industrial users in the world.

[00:19:20] Glenn Wylie: We hear how they’re doing and it’s a customer-centric business and we’re gonna continue. For that to be our focus. And then the second is, is getting product to customers more efficiently. And that’s not gonna slow down, that’s not gonna change in the near future. What started as three to five day delivery times is now same day.

[00:19:38] Glenn Wylie: It’s only gonna get faster. So what we’ve done at Link is really curate this infilled centered portfolio that allows our customers to get product to their consumers more efficiently. And, you know, I’ll, I’ll quantify it a little bit. 95% of our buildings have more than 1 million people within an hour drive.

[00:19:57] Glenn Wylie: 87% of our buildings have more than 2 million people within an hour drive. So again, what we’re trying to do and what we’re gonna continue to do is position our customers so that they can continue to give product to their consumers as quickly as possible.

[00:20:10] Scott W. Luton: Alright. Good stuff there Glen. And we got a lot to get into.

[00:20:12] Scott W. Luton: All right. So ward resilience, relationships. I was trying to think of a, a third thing that started with R, especially related to tailgate food. It didn’t come to me, but resilience and relationship towards speak. We heard that from Brandon and Glen. Your thoughts?

[00:20:26] Ward Richmond: Oh, I just think that the relationships are everything.

[00:20:30] Ward Richmond: And even when that market was really tight during those COVID years, I am lucky to represent a lot of great companies that occupy a lot of industrial real estate and have deep relationships with landlords like Link that have properties all over the country. And I find it really great to work with the larger landlords, like a link and we can communicate, and I can call Brandon or I can call Glenn if there’s something going on with the deal.

[00:20:59] Ward Richmond: May maybe in a market that, you know, they’re not deeply entrenched in or something and they will help me out. We, we did a deal with Link recently where my client, they were having a lot of different feedback from the operational side of the business and what we thought, you know, it normally might have been like a six to eight month project turned into a 24 month project, but it worked out and it was a lot of communicating and it was trusting that relationship and.

[00:21:28] Ward Richmond: So that’s everything. And it’s great to go do big real estate deals and it’s great to. Save my clients money. But at the end of the day, what gets me coming to work every day is the people that I’m dealing with. And that’s either my colleagues or landlords or the OR clients, and getting to deal with people and.

[00:21:48] Ward Richmond: Help make people’s lives easier is the way I look at what I do for a living.

[00:21:51] Scott W. Luton: I like it Ward. Well said. Now we’re gonna get more into an expert pulse check on the current industrial real estate market. And folks, even if you’re an amateur real estate individual like I am, I don’t know a whole bunch about industrial real estate, supply chain, real estate or even consumer real estate, but here’s your chance if you up speed on some key factors out there.

[00:22:11] Scott W. Luton: So that’s where we’re gonna start. Glen, you referenced, you were touched on some of these already. In fact all of us have kind of touched on some of these already, the top industrial demand drivers right now. What’s the top the list, the short list? Glen,

[00:22:23] Glenn Wylie: I’m give you a few. So I mean we touched on e-commerce.

[00:22:26] Glenn Wylie: You know, that continues to be just a massive driver in, in our business, and we touched on delivery times, most groups are continuing to grow that strategy and you’re seeing that from the larger users. You’re also seeing more local groups do it. 3PLs are taking more space to, to enhance these delivery efficiencies.

[00:22:44] Glenn Wylie: So. Again, we could spend a lot of time talking specifics around e-commerce, a few others, domestic manufacturing. That’s a trend we’re following with some of the recent policy announcements. My colleague in the central has probably experienced a little bit more of that activity from these users, but for us in the east, we are seeing it.

[00:23:04] Glenn Wylie: But I just think that demand takes a little bit more time to play through. If you wanna look at like a Greenville-Spartanburg with A BMW and the effects that, that it, it takes years, right, uh, for some of that demand to spill over, but it is something that we’re tracking. Ward probably sees it a lot in, in Texas as well.

[00:23:20] Glenn Wylie: The other one I’ll point out to you is, you know, we hear, you hear data centers a lot and we are seeing that as a new demand driver and have signed several deals within our own portfolio across the country from that, and, and it’s really showing up kind of in two buckets. The first, you know, these are multi-year projects.

[00:23:37] Glenn Wylie: Contractors need space to build the facilities. They’re taking down warehouses to be near that for the construction phase of it. That’s one of ’em, the spillovers. The second is we’re seeing users that actually service these data centers. So they can be supplying parts, they could be servicing the electrical, the HVAC, whatever that is, but they need a presence near these data centers.

[00:23:57] Glenn Wylie: And, you know, that use feels a little bit stickier to us. And again, we’ve signed several deals within our portfolio in the last few weeks that have gone for that specific use.

[00:24:08] Scott W. Luton: Man, we could, we could have a hour long conversation on each of those. I’m gonna go out to my first data center when I head out to a big, uh, industry conference in Vegas in a couple weeks.

[00:24:16] Scott W. Luton: I’m looking forward to that. Brandon, what would you add to the, that short list of top industrial demand drivers?

[00:24:22] Brandon Page: I don’t think we can have a conversation about industrial real estate and not reference 3PLs. 3PLs, which, you know, historically have been 25 to 30% of, you know, leasing on an annual basis.

[00:24:33] Brandon Page: That backed up to about, I don’t know, 15 to 18% depending on the market that you were in last year. And we’re north of 30% this year. And I think if you look at the amount of demand that’s out there as a result or the, the requirements that are in the market, it’s even above that. The challenge is, we were talking to a couple, um, at our advisory council last week is, you know, they, they feel like they’re getting their quote on the business side, but they’re having to work 10 times harder to get that business.

[00:24:55] Brandon Page: So we see a lot of requirements in the market and a lot of times the end users ultimately don’t end up executing that plan. But, you know, some of it is speed to market. You know, three PL allows you to go in really quickly into a market and gain presence. And at the same time, it also provides the flexibility for a shorter term need that they know they need the business today.

[00:25:14] Brandon Page: They may not necessarily willing to commit for five plus 10 years to a location, but they need it now. So the three PL serves as, as both a, a quick way to get to the market and also a low initial investment, which I think we’re seeing a lot of both of those types of requirements from the three PL side.

[00:25:31] Scott W. Luton: Yeah, it’s a great call out with 3PLs and just you’re echoing a big theme. Really from the whole conversation, but certainly in Glen’s short list, just the, the pace, the velocity it touches everything from, especially from an AI standpoint and the, uh, the demands putting on the power grid and our infrastructure, just the pace of business.

[00:25:50] Scott W. Luton: And we’ve referenced e-commerce and ever changing consumer expectations a few times. That feels like a changed by the hour Ward. When you heard this short list from Glenn and Brandon, in terms of what’s driving demand right now, what comes to your mind?

[00:26:03] Ward Richmond: Well, I mean the data center thing is definitely real.

[00:26:07] Ward Richmond: I think Google did a million square foot lease in DFW just to support their data center that’s getting built, you know, pretty sure about that. And, uh, the three PL world, that’s what I specialize in, is working with 3PLs and I say there’s like industrial real estate brokers and then there are three PL real estate brokers because it’s its own real estate operation.

[00:26:27] Ward Richmond: And, uh, they are constantly looking at the market and chasing different contracts. They require extreme flexibility. They were very fast moving versus a lot of shippers are a lot more strategic and they’re looking for longer term places to be and they just have the opportunity to be a lot more proactive.

[00:26:46] Ward Richmond: So I think this uncertainty just in the global economy and the supply chain is occurring right now. It makes sense for a lot of these shippers to lean on the 3PLs heavier than they have been. And then manufacturing’s definitely happening here in Texas. There’s a ton of demand coming in for that position themselves here in the US with the, you know, the current policies with the current administration.

[00:27:11] Scott W. Luton: Good stuff. Alright, so I wanna get real specific on one hot space that we’ve, we’ve seen. Especially given your last point there board all the uncertainty and the ever going, ever challenging trade landscape, right? All new policies. I hope we can get through this conversation without saying the T word being tariffs, but the bonded warehouse and foreign trade zone market branded.

[00:27:33] Scott W. Luton: Let’s talk about that. That’s been really hot. ’cause folks trying, it seems like as an amateur here, trying to insulate themselves from as much uncertainty as they can and dodge some of the, uh, added costs associated with uncertainty. What do you see in there, Brandon?

[00:27:47] Brandon Page: I think the bonded warehouse market’s not new.

[00:27:50] Brandon Page: It’s been around for a really long time. I think this was definitely a, a key buzzword that you saw in every newspaper two to three months ago, maybe a little bit longer. You know, we have dozens of bonded warehouses within our portfolio. What, what I’ll tell you is that, you know, one, you’re not avoiding paying taxes, you’re effectively just delaying that.

[00:28:09] Brandon Page: So we sort of mandate, go back, look through our portfolio, what could we do to make these more attractive? And the reality is. They’re very underlying, tenant specific. So most of these warehouses are actually portions of facilities within three PL units. Right. And, you know, we sign off on them. It’s just effectively an agreement that takes place within our footprint.

[00:28:31] Brandon Page: It doesn’t even have to necessarily be the whole space. It could be two bays within a building. So it, it is really a tenant specific use that, like I said, it doesn’t, it doesn’t avoid taxes. You know, if you’ve got a long lead time or something you’re gonna be sitting on for a while where that. Interest carry is, is a meaningful amount then it does make sense.

[00:28:49] Brandon Page: It definitely makes sense in terms of some of the products coming in from South America, which is why like Miami and there’s, you know, certain regions that are a little bit heavier on the bonded warehouse side, but largely it’s not a big driver for us. And we really lean on, you know, the 3PLs primarily, or the underlying client is responsible for really filling out all that paperwork.

[00:29:07] Brandon Page: And like I said, we’re, we’re happy to accommodate it. We, we’ve certainly been helpful with a number of customers doing it, but it’s not really a big driver, uh, of demand that we see on our side.

[00:29:16] Scott W. Luton: And I hear they’re, they’re really difficult to set up, so you need to work with somebody as by understanding with folks already have them set up.

[00:29:22] Scott W. Luton: I think they can take a lot of time to get new bonded warehouses or FTZ. Areas set up. Is that your

[00:29:28] Brandon Page: Yeah, it’s, it’s a quite a arduous process that, that there’s a reason why the 3PLs have, they’ve gotten good at this and which is why most people do have that sort of, whether it be a short term or long-term need, end up running ’em through the 3PLs to help satisfy that.

[00:29:40] Brandon Page: But yeah, a lot of tape to run through to get those set up.

[00:29:42] Scott W. Luton: Uncle Sam’s gonna get his tax dollars. He may, it may take him a little while to get ’em, but he’s gonna get Ward. Quick comment there you, are you seeing that, you’re hearing what Brandon was sharing about the bonding warehouses and FTZs your thoughts?

[00:29:53] Ward Richmond: The FTZs have always been very important for clients depending on, well when I say my client, I mean a three pl and then it’s a lot of times it’s who their client is and if they’re gonna require that FTZ or not. I did hear something about the bonded warehouses that there were some that, like smaller 3PLs that were trying to get in and get a bonded warehouse because the tariffs were going up to lock in the lower tariffs, but then the tariffs dropped again and then they’re stuck with this initial tariffs.

[00:30:19] Ward Richmond: So it was like playing blackjack is what it sounded like to me. But I think the 3PLs that are operating bonded warehouses. If they’re doing that with consistency and that’s their core business. That’s their core business. I think people that tried to get into bonded warehousing that had never done it before, when the tariffs started happening and make a quick buck, it’s like playing blackjack.

[00:30:39] Ward Richmond: Maybe they hit the jackpot, maybe they lost it.

[00:30:41] Scott W. Luton: I wouldn’t even say it’s blackjack. It’s like roulette. Yeah. There’s zero, there’s double zero. There’s triple zero. It, it’s like a, even your wor your luck and odds are even worse. But we’ll see. We’ll see what lies ahead. Uh, red 19 by the way, if y’all go to Vegas, red 19, bet the farm.

[00:30:56] Scott W. Luton: Alright, so Brandon, the North Star is always what’s important to the customers, right? What they’re trying to get done and how we can provide the solutions to said customers to delight their customers. Maybe Brandon, what’s been top of mind for your customers right now?

[00:31:12] Brandon Page: Flexibility comes to mind the most right now.

[00:31:15] Brandon Page: I, you know, I think. If you look, but corporate users have largely been on the sidelines for the last year, which I think is really remarkable given the, the absorption of the net leasing that’s gone on across the industry. But there’s just so much uncertainty right now in the macro environment. The margin pressures I talked about earlier.

[00:31:31] Brandon Page: It just makes it really challenging for these companies to make large capital investments. So, you know, I think customers are constantly looking for flexibility, cubic efficiency within their warehouses, how they get the most out of what they have. You know, we’re seeing, you know, cases where a consolidation amongst several smaller facilities into a, a newer, more functional facility makes all the sense in the world they’re being scrapped just because the cost to relocate is so high.

[00:31:55] Brandon Page: And so, you know, just those near term costs a lot of times at this moment outweigh, you know, the, the long-term reward until they feel a little bit better about their business. And that’s a, that’s a really challenging time for them trying to operate their business.

[00:32:08] Scott W. Luton: I think all of what you just shared there speaks to.

[00:32:11] Scott W. Luton: The va vast, varying degrees of uncertainty that, uh, we’re, we’re all, were talking about earlier. Glen, top of mind for customers. What do you see?

[00:32:19] Glenn Wylie: I think if you would rewind a little bit, we did that earlier in the discussion a few years ago. I think the first answer from a customer would been labor where we can’t find labor.

[00:32:28] Glenn Wylie: We’re struggling with labor and, and I think still is somewhat the case today. It just doesn’t feel as urgent perhaps as it was in, in past years. So I think, you know, Brandon touched on a lot of it. I think it to, to summarize that it’s really optimization, right? And it’s, you know, when you think of that it’s inventory management levels, most efficient transportation costs.

[00:32:50] Glenn Wylie: Are we right sized? Do we need to grow? Do we need to, to consolidate? I would tell you power is a conversation that is really, we’re having that conversation a lot with our customers, kind of leads into automation. You know, and obviously we will touch on the ai I am sure. But it’s just all of those things, kind of how they can further optimize their warehouse and be the most efficient.

[00:33:14] Scott W. Luton: It’s tough. Uh, alright. Ward, I bet your customers have seen it all. I bet they’re drinking o’ duals ’cause they got all these stories to share all, all the different chapters of business growth and challenges they’ve lived through. What’s top of mind for your customers right now, ward?

[00:33:28] Ward Richmond: I was just gonna say that they value extreme speed and response time and extreme patience.

[00:33:38] Ward Richmond: And when they’re looking for space and it’s, it depends on what day it is. So it’s very fast moving and then a lot of analysis paralysis, if you wanna call it that. And that’s just go get answers and go send it back in. And for people to analyze the data that gets reported back. And then there’s a long period of time and then when it’s go, it’s like, go.

[00:34:04] Ward Richmond: So it’s so funny ’cause there’s, it’s requiring more patients than I’ve ever needed. And then it’s also requiring faster speeds of turning around and synthesizing data. All these decisions are extremely data-driven. If there were three data sets that existed in 2019, there are 10 now, and then they’ll add another one for each deal.

[00:34:25] Ward Richmond: And I think that is just the method of CYA in this world that we’re living in. You know, check every box, make dot every, I cross every t when making these big real estate decisions and make sure that whoever’s making that decision has backed it up with as much evidence as possible. And I mean, it’s, it’s like riding a buck in Bronco sometimes.

[00:34:46] Ward Richmond: And that’s, I’m here for it, man.

[00:34:47] Scott W. Luton: Love it. Love it. You know, we call that in the Air Force. Uh, hurry up and wait ’cause it was around every corner. Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. Glen, I got a question for you and Brandon here. How would you characterize the current state of supply? Are we in equilibrium?

[00:35:01] Scott W. Luton: Are we under supplied or are we still working through the overhang from the past building? Boom. Your thoughts, Glenn?

[00:35:07] Glenn Wylie: That’s a great question. It’s, it’s, it’s extremely nuanced and a lot of it is, is market. It’s sub-market dependent. It’s size dependent, and that’s where I think at Link, you know, we have local teams, local knowledge.

[00:35:20] Glenn Wylie: That’s extremely important for us as a platform. You know, I touched on size. I think that’s one of the things, if you kind of look at the bulk space, so let’s call it over 400,000 square feet on a national perspective, that availability rate is trending higher than the 20 year average. But if you focus on the spaces, call it below 150, 200,000 square feet, that availability rate is significantly less than the 20 year average.

[00:35:48] Glenn Wylie: If you add in the fact that construction starts are at a historic low, there’s certain markets and there’s certain submarkets where probably are on both sides of your question oversupply and under supplied. But there’s a number of markets right now that they may feel oversupplied, but with that tightening construction pipeline, if a few deals do hit, the availability swings back very quickly.

[00:36:11] Glenn Wylie: And it’s a dynamic that we’re actually seeing play through in certain markets right now, and it’s really hard to develop new infill product. I mean it land scarcity. We can talk about municipalities are not necessarily in favor of new construction as well. So again, I think as you think about that equilibrium, you have to factor in future, future supply as well.

[00:36:32] Brandon Page: Yeah. I think that, um, you know, that new construction or lack of new construction is really the most important piece of this. I mean, I think if you look, you know, to Glen’s point, we’re a couple of buildings away in, in a handful of markets where we go from too much to no supply. And even if, you know, if you think the rents are high today, the rents, there’s a reason why nobody’s developing is because the rents don’t justify the return that you need in order to develop a new building.

[00:36:55] Brandon Page: So the reality is once we get through this glut in a handful of markets, and I think you could see that happen in a, a quick quarter, you know, busy quarter, in some cases, rents have to rise in order to justify new construction. The alternative to that is if cap rates go back down to 3%, like we talked about earlier.

[00:37:11] Brandon Page: But I’m not betting on that. So I’m betting on the rents rising to sort of kick off that new wave of, of construction. Once, uh, the supply that’s out there today is, is gobbled up and it will happen.

[00:37:21] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding. I feel like I’ve just walked back through an economics class that I failed miserably in college.

[00:37:26] Scott W. Luton: Brandon Clinton, ward, your thoughts on how we’re characterizing the current state of supply.

[00:37:32] Ward Richmond: I mean, you went from the highest supply in history being built to now back to the low and I think it’s a 62% drop since the peak of supply to where it went down to. It does appear to be stabilizing now, so I think it a market like Dallas, they’re building 30 million square feet right now.

[00:37:52] Ward Richmond: So Dallas, Dallas, pre pandemic levels of construction, and Dallas is leading the country by far. Houston is behind that. So obviously like these Texas developers. Or feeling pretty optimistic about what’s going on here. We also have high vacancy rates going on and that’s also looks like a roller coaster.

[00:38:12] Ward Richmond: But I think the vacancy stabilizing, I think the certain, this is very nuanced depending on what market you’re in. I think all the developers and let’s say the majority of the developers are paying very close attention to the microeconomics of each market that they’re developing in. Because what’s happening in Dallas is definitely not the same in Los Angeles right now.

[00:38:33] Ward Richmond: So it just depends and, but I do feel like things are stabilizing and I’m hopeful that it remains stable and it’s better than the roller coaster. That is what all of the charts look like for the last five years.

[00:38:47] Scott W. Luton: I like how you think practically optimistic. Uh, stability is a good thing. Always underrated.

[00:38:52] Scott W. Luton: Uh, alright, so Glenn, are you ready for a two part question? This is a big one. You buckle it up. Do you hang on to your socks when you survey the national industrial real estate landscape? We’re talking about some of these individual market by market perspectives. What are some of the most dynamic markets out there?

[00:39:07] Scott W. Luton: And secondly, what’s going on in some of the secondary tertiary markets As we’ve talked about, business leaders looking for affordability, flexibility is Brandon Touchstone. Other options? Your thoughts, Glen,

[00:39:19] Glenn Wylie: starting back with the customer-centric approach. You know, we like to be flexible in all markets, so we’re, we’re here to help on that.

[00:39:25] Glenn Wylie: But to your question, really like what we’re seeing in the Southeast and you know, Atlanta, Charlotte, like what we’re seeing in central Florida, both Tampa, Orlando, I think if, again, if you had some of my colleagues on you could extend that to the Sunbelt, Houston, Nashville, Dallas, pockets of Phoenix, Miami felt like it was having a little bit of a summer slowdown.

[00:39:49] Glenn Wylie: Um, but it’s, it’s starting to pick back up again on on demand. So it’s good to see that that market’s performing continues to perform well too. If you’re looking for flexibility, affordability, I think is how you kind of phrase the question. New Jersey, I would say, you know, we’re seeing healthier levels of demand than perhaps we were 18 months ago.

[00:40:09] Glenn Wylie: The depth of that demand still feels a little limited. And then if you’re looking for ultimate flexibility, I think markets like Memphis, Baltimore, you know, where, where we’re just not seeing much demand. If you kind of go back to the, the question, I think around the, the availabilities too, there are certain markets where size ranges change that dynamic.

[00:40:29] Glenn Wylie: I look at like a Greensboro for example. We have a big presence there. I like the underlying fundamentals of it. But if you’re over 75,000 square feet, there’s probably a few more options. If you’re below 75,000 square feet, it’s, it’s pretty tight. So again, you know, a lot of this is market sub-market dependent, but that’s probably a quick rundown of the east region.

[00:40:50] Scott W. Luton: I like it. I, I pictured a, a map as you’re walking us through all the different markets. It’s like you’re, um, uh, a weather forecaster. We need a real estate map. Like they had, you know, weather forecaster use the map. That would be a really cool idea for a podcast. We’ll talk more about that, Glenn, Brandon, dynamic markets, you know, secondary, tertiary markets and some of those dynamics that Glenn was referencing.

[00:41:10] Scott W. Luton: Your thoughts, Brandon,

[00:41:11] Brandon Page: I don’t think we can go with, you know, this podcast without giving Houston. Its due. Houston actually might be the healthiest industrial market in the US right now. I mean, Dallas is fantastic. You know, the great state of Texas, the Republic of Texas give it its props. But I, you know, I think if you look on the Western us, I think Glenn mentioned it, but Phoenix, the data center demand that we’re seeing there, you know, they had a tremendous oversupply of, of bulk leasing or bulk space.

[00:41:38] Brandon Page: That product was actually there last week and I think it’s like there’s like two buildings left over a million square feet and tremendous amount of demand that’s coming. I think, again, you go back to. We just gotta give Houston its props as why. It just makes me happy to see that market finally be on top.

[00:41:52] Brandon Page: You can’t say that very often in our career,

[00:41:54] Scott W. Luton: no doubt. Oh, and their football team wasn’t too bad last year. Uh, the record, second quarterback, but I walked street, uh, Las Colinas more. That portion of the, the metroplex had four folks trying to sell me a warehouse, so it must be a really hot, hot market. But Ward, when you heard from Glenn and Brandon, some of their observations, different cities, different markets, your thoughts,

[00:42:15] Ward Richmond: I feel like, um, I’m gonna agree with everything those guys say because they are owning these properties in those markets and they see what’s going on.

[00:42:23] Ward Richmond: I’ve talked about Texas, the Republic of Texas, a lot future home of the Texas Stock Exchange. Um, and uh, I just think it just depends whether I’m repping a user out in anywhere in the country. It depends on what they need and it depends on what the submarket is. Markets can shift. We just did a deal in Phoenix and we were looking for 300,000 square feet and there were five options and we picked one of the options of course, and we’re going down and we’re out leases.

[00:42:54] Ward Richmond: And then a user came along and made an offer to buy that building so that that deal fell apart. We went back to the other four options, they’re all leased. All of a sudden we went from having five options to, you know, zero options and had to go back to the drawing board and thankfully figured it out.

[00:43:10] Ward Richmond: But the markets can shift fast. These numbers look huge, but a lot of these buildings are huge. So it’s just when some, a handful of big deals and you get that momentum, it seems to just happen. Like it’s all a cliche for a reason. When it rains, it pours and it can shift market conditions very quickly.

[00:43:26] Ward Richmond: ’cause we’re dealing with some huge buildings and a lot of large occupiers

[00:43:31] Scott W. Luton: and a lot of as, as you were alluding to earlier. Lots of criteria across all the different data that’s available as they do their due diligence and they add, as I think as you put it, ward, as they go through a deal, they find three new metrics they like and they add that to the, to the next deal

[00:43:46] Glenn Wylie: Ward’s.

[00:43:47] Glenn Wylie: Comment around though those four options, I think he said in Phoenix, I mean that’s a real, that’s a real not issue, but phenomena that’s going on in in certain markets. I mean, Charlotte’s the same way. If you surveyed Charlotte 60 days ago, there were ample buildings over 400,000 square feet. There’s been four deals over 400,000 square feet in Charlotte in the last 30 days.

[00:44:07] Glenn Wylie: So War’s Point, those options are no longer, are no longer available. So it is an interesting, we go back to that construction supply and that dynamic. They can change pretty, pretty quickly.

[00:44:17] Ward Richmond: Yeah. I’ll add one more thing. That’s just another interesting thing is when you’re in co, when we were in the pandemic post pandemic boom, it was a landlord’s market.

[00:44:27] Ward Richmond: That was for sure. Then you see in the newspaper that we have this oversupply. So a lot of tenants say, oh, it’s a tenant market now. And it just depends because it’s not a tenant market like it was a landlord’s market back then because it just depends on what the sub market is and what you’re looking for.

[00:44:47] Ward Richmond: And like the stats of the US industrial doesn’t tell the story. So it’s all very nuanced and it just depends on the deal. And it’s not, oh, let’s go to every landlord in the portfolio and ask for a blended extent. It might just be 10% of the portfolio might make sense to go try to get some kind of a deal, or there’s some really aggressive landlords, but it really just depends.

[00:45:12] Ward Richmond: And then a lot of landlords have, or they’re well capitalized and. Have the ability to wait it out and they’re not dropping rents. And you, frankly, landlords can’t drop rents because they paid so much for the buildings in the first place. And so it’s just a little bit of an odd market and it really depends on a deal by deal basis on whose favorite it’s leaning towards.

[00:45:31] Brandon Page: And I think if you step back too and think about like seven to 8%, uh, vacancy is being a balanced market. I mean, that’s kind of where we’re at. So we’re over, so, you know, oversupplied on the bulk end, but unders supplied on the small end, which is where we lean to in our portfolio. You know, that balance is kind of in that seven, you know, seven, 8% vacancy range.

[00:45:50] Brandon Page: Doesn’t always feel like it. I, I guess our customers are probably say the same thing, but uh, it really is kind of a balanced market. Yeah, I agree.

[00:45:57] Scott W. Luton: So Glenn, I uh, we had a two part question a second ago. One good two part question serves another. So I’ll talk about, we referenced some of the headwinds, right?

[00:46:05] Scott W. Luton: Uh, some of the trends, some of the things fueling demand. We’ve touched on some headwinds that the industrial real estate sector is facing right now. How is link positioning itself to weather all the headwinds? And how are you leveraging AI or other innovative technology in the industrial real estate sector?

[00:46:23] Scott W. Luton: Glen,

[00:46:23] Glenn Wylie: another two parter. I thought we were family. Scott, you’re throwing the, you’re throwing the more difficult ones at me here, but, um, and handle it, Glen. I know you got it. Thank you. You know, from the, the biggest headwinds I would say it, it’s really just general uncertainty in the economy. I mean, we, we, we won’t say the T word, but you know, it’s still, there’s some uncertainty, obviously.

[00:46:43] Glenn Wylie: And then I think consumer health, right? And that’s leading to slower decision making by our customers. You know? How does some of that play out over the next few quarters? Well, obviously watch and monitor because if you, if you, if you strip away those. And you just focused on some of the fundamentals on the ground that Brandon Lord, and, and I touched on, it feels pretty stable in, in most of those, in most of my markets.

[00:47:08] Glenn Wylie: And what we operate in AI, I think was the second part of, of your, your question. And my goodness, we could dedicate another hour to that. I’ll tell you the way Link is thinking about this. And it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of fun. And to be in a real estate company that’s focused on AI is, is, is very unique and fun.

[00:47:25] Glenn Wylie: But there’s really three ways to kind of break it down for us, productivity, right? How can we make our teams, our assets, our platforms more productive, increase output. The second really is, is automation or automate, you know, what can we do again for our people, our assets, our platform to gain efficiencies for us, for our customers, reduce cost.

[00:47:47] Glenn Wylie: And then the third is really insights, right? And it’s how can we as a firm make faster decisions, smarter decisions? And I’ll give you, I mean, we have a team of, of data scientists, which, you know, we, we would, we welcome those conversations with them as well. Matt Rand, who leads our research. And really, I mean, one example of of these insights is there’s a rent modeling tool that we have, if you will.

[00:48:11] Glenn Wylie: It analyzes billions of data points, market demand indicators. You then partner that with kind of our local teams. It allows link, again, to identify market trends earlier, allows for smarter decision making. And you know, it’s, again, we’re just at kind of the forefront of this and it’s, it’s really exciting to already see the progress and, and where this is trending.

[00:48:31] Scott W. Luton: Glen, that is really cool. That is really cool. And I bet y’all having a heck of a time and when you’re investing in all that innovative, innovative technology, it helps you keep up with the pace and the velocity of business that we were referencing throughout the conversation. Brandon, your thoughts on the same two-parter.

[00:48:46] Scott W. Luton: How Link is best positioned to ha handle the headwinds facing the space and leveraging AI and all the other innovative technology?

[00:48:53] Brandon Page: Glenn actually did such a great job talking about how we put the headwinds. I’m probably not gonna address that one. A lot of the same thoughts on my side on, on the AI front though, I think.

[00:49:03] Brandon Page: From my perspective, we haven’t even scratched the surface. I think, you know, six months ago we really weren’t thinking about it. Others were thinking about it, but it really wasn’t necessarily playing into day-to-day thought. Where I think, you know, it’s going to be a differentiator. You know, data and we have a lot of data and how we use that data is going to be a key differentiator.

[00:49:22] Brandon Page: I think it’s going to impact, you know, customer supply chain teams and how they’re gonna decide where they need their facilities. How are we gonna price our buildings based on that? I think the legal process is gonna change. Imagine having two bots go at, put together a lease in like 15 seconds, I think.

[00:49:38] Brandon Page: I think that is a realistic, you know, concept. That’s something that we never really thought would happen. I think it’s gonna help us spot growing industries. And as we start to see things shift sooner, I think you’ll, this is all like really great con concept, but it’s a challenge. You know, we’re not a, you know, language learning model company, but I think, you know, there’s a ton of ways that we can take and I think, like I spend a lot of my time thinking about where is demand coming from?

[00:50:03] Brandon Page: And you know, ancillary data center demand is a perfect example of that. I mean, we’re all kinda looking for like, what’s the next demand driver? And I think AI is gonna help us spot those types of opportunities before others see it. And I think some of it between our proprietary data as well as just the information that’s out in the world right now, you kind of blend that.

[00:50:20] Brandon Page: Plus the relationships that we have with our customers, large occupiers, market movers, those are things that are gonna help us sort of pinpoint where is that next demand coming from and how do we get in front of it.

[00:50:30] Scott W. Luton: Very cool. And you, you referenced the, uh, you know, one day we’re gonna have one soon day, one soon hour, we’re gonna have.

[00:50:36] Scott W. Luton: To AI agents hammering out real estate deals. I mean, I’m

[00:50:39] Brandon Page: not here to suggest that we’re going to eliminate the need for attorneys. That’s not my point. I just think there’s a lot of inefficiencies that are built into, you know, whether it be drafting the lease, we could be on the, you know, LOIs, all of that I think is going to be, uh, shortened here.

[00:50:53] Scott W. Luton: I’m with you. I was gonna say that, uh, when those AI agents get together, I initially we’re gonna have some beach deals closed in Arkansas, maybe some snow, snow ski deals closed in Florida. But eventually we’ll get fine tuned in. And kidding aside, it’ll be interesting to see how these deals grow in value, grow in terms of their, their streamlining, how we can streamline deals, make it easier while enhancing and ensuring that the right decisions for the customers are being made.

[00:51:19] Scott W. Luton: Its amazing Times war. Really quick, we’re gonna do a fast and furious finish in a second, but your thoughts there on what Glenn and Brandon both touched on headwinds technologies and, and then some?

[00:51:30] Ward Richmond: Well, when I think about the AI aspect, I mean. It’s just when I went to college, that’s when I first found out about email.

[00:51:38] Ward Richmond: Right? 1996. And you just think about the iPhone existing today, who, who would’ve ever thought that we would be in a place when I was in 1996 where I could pull out my phone and do all my emails, which I really didn’t understand what that was in 1996. And have a map and be able to listen to every song that I’ve ever thought about in my life.

[00:52:00] Ward Richmond: And every, any song I hear, I can find out what song it is. Obviously we all know what an iPhone is. I think AI is at this stage right now, that’s like the pre email internet. You know what I mean? I think it’s so early, but I think it’s going to expand so exponentially that to predict what it’s going to do to our entire society is beyond what our minds can process.

[00:52:28] Ward Richmond: Yeah. So I think that. Humanity is going to be a huge value. These personal relationships are going to be more important than ever. And I do think that it’s gonna make a lot of things a lot easier for us to do, but I think a lot of the core human skills that we talked about earlier when we’re talking about relationships, are gonna become way more important as a lot of these other jobs get taken away by the robots, you know?

[00:52:56] Scott W. Luton: Well said. Or the, the beautiful and very unique human factor empowered with AI and other technologies. But I would also agree with you, we really, we know, we know now, but we have such a blind spot, I believe like you’re alluding to, of what AI’s gonna do. Five months from now, certainly like five years from now, it’s gonna be amazing.

[00:53:16] Scott W. Luton: And, and you know, not just ai but other technologies. Alright, so I gotta get off the technology nerd talk. I’m bad about that from time to time. I wanna wrap on a couple key items here. Misconceptions about industrial real estate that you wish more people understood. Brandon, you’re what, what’s one misconception you wish more folks didn’t have?

[00:53:35] Brandon Page: We all spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, fortune 50, fortune 100 companies. We talk about those names or, you know, that’s what the headlines are all about. You know, we have 3000 buildings, 8,000 different leases. Most are not Fortune 50. So the majority of our portfolio is small, regional, local businesses.

[00:53:53] Brandon Page: And I think it’s fascinating when you walk through customer spaces, you know, they’re proud of what they do. They wanna show you what differentiates them from their, you know, from their competitors. And it’s, it’s sort of that entrepreneurial spirit. Which I think you could all argue is kinda the backbone of America.

[00:54:07] Brandon Page: And, and that’s on display. And you see that every time you walk through our facilities. That’s something I really enjoy about walking through our buildings, is the pride that you see each of these individual businesses and their goal to succeed and support their families.

[00:54:18] Scott W. Luton: Love that. Brandon, Tom’s a thousand.

[00:54:20] Scott W. Luton: Love that. Glenn, it’s made a tough answer to top there. What’s one misconception about industrial real estate you wish more folks didn’t have out there?

[00:54:28] Glenn Wylie: I completely agree with, with Brandon. I, I’ll kind of add on, I guess to it a little bit. It’s, it’s really that industrial is, is is viewed as simply a commodity, right?

[00:54:36] Glenn Wylie: And, and maybe if you rewound 10, 15, 20 years, it was, it’s simply a box, right? Does it meet a survey geographically? Is it the right size? And you know, today, and we’ve talked a lot about it in the past hour or so, you know, we partner with our customers local economic development groups, you know, municipalities to make sure that we have the right power sources.

[00:54:58] Glenn Wylie: Do we have access to fiber data? Are we equipped to handle automation? You know, we didn’t spend a lot of time on configurations for our customer Cube heights, you know, ’cause we are really focused on kind of being positioned where this industry is headed, not necessarily where it just is today.

[00:55:14] Scott W. Luton: So much more to talk about in this equation, to arrive at that holistic solution that, uh, whether they’re highly complex, real estate needs or maybe some of the more straightforward needs.

[00:55:25] Scott W. Luton: But good stuff there. Glenn and Brandon, that just tells you that we gotta have you back. We gotta have you back Ward one misconception you wish you could have a magic wand and just do away with out there in the market.

[00:55:35] Ward Richmond: Kind of along the same thing that Glenn just said. You can, like, we’ll go into a market and there might be 100 buildings in a market like DFW for a client.

[00:55:45] Ward Richmond: That might make sense from an initial survey perspective. But once you get into it and it’s like, well, how many trailer parks do you need? How many dock doors do you need? What you need? Office space that’s ready to go? Okay. You need levelers that are in place so you don’t have to wait on and you get a drill down.

[00:55:58] Ward Richmond: You might be lucky to have one or two options that really work in the clear height and everything else lined up. So it is very different. And I mean, the coolest thing about industrial real estate is most people do not even know that it exists. It’s like your eye does not even notice it until it does, and then you can’t unsee it.

[00:56:15] Ward Richmond: You see the whole supply chain working within the walls of those facilities, and I’m really thankful that we all get to Merck in that sector and see the backbone of commerce in this world.

[00:56:26] Scott W. Luton: Well said. You know, my dear friend Tony Sciarotta. Um, who has led, continues to lead, the reverse logistics association’s now part of the National Retail Federation ecosystem.

[00:56:37] Scott W. Luton: And he’s long said that the reverse, uh, space returns management space has been the, the dark side of supply chain that no one knows, no one wants to deal with. And I think it has a little bit of that in, as you’re talking about with industrial real estate, that even practitioners like myself didn’t really understand throughout our journey.

[00:56:56] Scott W. Luton: And I think the more and more see it and then can’t forget it, as you were saying, ward, I think industry’s better off. So Brandon and Glenn and Ward, as I knew I would, I’ve, I’ve got about 17 pages of notes here from the Brain Trust and getting the pulse check on, on supply chain real estate. Uh, I wanna make sure folks know how to connect with each of y’all because if there’s anything clear after this last hour, it’s.

[00:57:19] Scott W. Luton: Folks need trusted experts, specialists, as they have, as they’re trying to solve their real estate needs out there. So Brandon, how can folks connect with you and the Link Logistics team?

[00:57:30] Brandon Page: I’d suggest just reaching out, uh, either through our website, Link Logistics.com or you can find me on LinkedIn search Brandon Page Link Logistics, and I’ll pop up

[00:57:38] Scott W. Luton: just that easy.

[00:57:39] Scott W. Luton: And Glen, how about you my friend? When you’re not tailgating in, uh, the still, uh, national Championship, Clemson Tigers, we got hopefully another one on the horizon SUNY And that good, those good Publix chicken wings. How can folks track you down and do big deals in the industry?

[00:57:54] Glenn Wylie: Yeah, same. I mean, we’re on the website.

[00:57:56] Glenn Wylie: Feel free to reach out and you know, we would welcome it. We love transparency. We love to hear, you know, how you are doing what we can be doing better. So yeah. Please feel free to reach out.

[00:58:05] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding. Well, Brandon Glen, great to have you both. Ward, you’ve got probably the toughest question I think here today ’cause we’ve covered so much ground.

[00:58:15] Scott W. Luton: There’s lots of action takeaways as we knew there would be in this conversation with Brandon and Glenn and yourself. What is the key takeaway that our audience members just cannot lose sight of after today’s conversation?

[00:58:26] Ward Richmond: I think the key takeaway is that we’re in a balanced market and that this day and age requires a lot of flexibility and that relationships still trump everything in this world.

[00:58:42] Ward Richmond: And those are my three takeaways.

[00:58:44] Scott W. Luton: Well said. Ward, uh, it’s been great to see you continue to evolve out there and great to reconnect here On today’s podcast. I’m gonna ask you. Trucking on your latest podcast, y’all just surpass 150 episodes. What’s the latest? What are you looking forward to?

[00:58:58] Ward Richmond: I’m looking forward to a brief hiatus, so I’m still recording a couple of episodes between now and the end of the year, but I’m not gonna release any until January and I’m just taking a pause for the cause and enjoy the holiday season, just kids sports and all of that as this kicks into that time of year.

[00:59:16] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding, uh, well earned. Well, I look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Hopefully next time in person. Big thanks to Award Richmond. Big thanks, uh, Brandon Page and Glenn Wiley both with Link Logistics. Brandon, thanks for being here, my friend.

[00:59:29] Brandon Page: Thank you. Appreciate it. Enjoyed the conversation.

[00:59:31] Scott W. Luton: Bet I’m gonna get some a plus slider, uh, tips from you soon, uh, for church softball, of course.

[00:59:36] Scott W. Luton: Uh, and Glenn, uh, great to have you here as well, my friend.

[00:59:39] Glenn Wylie: Thanks for having us, and I’m, I’m sure with Clemson season, we got a few extra tickets floating around these days. If you need a few, just, uh, come on out,

[00:59:45] Scott W. Luton: we’ll do it, we’ll do it. And Ward Richmond Ward’s been a, a pleasure, uh, to reconnect with you here and can’t wait to see the latest music, uh, gig coming out the podcast, and of course, all the big things you’re doing out in the industry.

[00:59:58] Scott W. Luton: Great to see you Ward Richmond. Thanks, God, what a great conversation, man. I feel like I’ve gotten a masterclass and I certainly lead this conversation knowing, again, all the complexity that a lot of us out there just maybe take for granted that, that, that, uh, goes on in the supply chain real estate realm.

[01:00:18] Scott W. Luton: A big thanks to all of our guests and our, my special co-host. So big thanks Brandon Glenn, and work for being here to all of our audience members out there, folks, you got homework. Hope you enjoy the episode number one, but you got homework. Take one thing. Just one thing you heard here from Brandon, Glenn and Ward, put it into practice.

[01:00:34] Scott W. Luton: Share it with your team. Do something with it. It’s about deeds, not words. That’s how we’re gonna continue transforming the global business world, global supply chain, and realize more and more of the art of the possible. So with all that said, Scott Luton challenging all of you out there. Do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed, and we’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.

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