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Institutional investors drive record outdoor storage deal sizes
One $672M transaction involved a 78-property portfolio spanning 830 acres across 33 U.S. markets, highlighting rising capital for industrial outdoor storage despite trucking headwinds.
Wall Street has increasingly turned to industrial outdoor storage, pushing deal sizes to new highs even as the trucking sector faces a prolonged contraction, according to Bisnow. The outlet links the shift to demand from data center developers and a persistent undersupply of industrial outdoor storage lots, which has encouraged investors to pay up for the properties.
Bisnow points to a record August deal between Realterm and Starwood Property Trust, valued at $672M. The transaction refinanced a 78-property portfolio totaling 830 acres across 33 U.S. markets, underscoring institutional appetite for niche property types like truck yards and heavy equipment storage depots.
Other sources of capital are also becoming more active, ranging from regional banks to CMBS lenders and private capital, Bisnow reports. Institutional capital now accounts for 45% of investment in the sector, up from 30% four years earlier, and IOS investment is estimated at $14B to $16B in 2025, up 15% from the prior year.
The sector’s operating metrics remain supportive, with CBRE reporting nationwide IOS rents of $11.07 per square foot per month in the second quarter, a 1.6% year-over-year increase. Vacancy was 3.6% nationally versus 6.5% for industrial overall, and Bisnow says deal activity is projected to outpace 2025 as the number of portfolio sales is forecast to rise.