By
Franco Faraudo
– Editor, Propmodo
Nov. 11, 2025
For decades, industrial real estate was treated as commercial property’s workhorse—functional, cheap, and largely ignored. The sector’s reputation as the “poor cousin” of office space was cemented by its utilitarian design: cavernous boxes on the edge of town, prioritizing loading bays and clear heights over comfort or connectivity. But as industrial tenants shift from storage and distribution to high-tech production, those unglamorous boxes are undergoing a quiet transformation. Today’s advanced manufacturing users want spaces that look less like logistics centers and more like modern workplaces—digitally connected, comfortable, and flexible enough to attract specialized talent.
That shift is being fueled by both economics and workforce dynamics. According to CBRE, demand for U.S. industrial space tied to manufacturing has grown nearly 15% year-over-year, outpacing logistics for the first time in decades. This growth includes everything from robotics and semiconductor assembly to electric vehicle components—operations that depend on precision, clean environments, and a reliable digital backbone. At the same time, the people working inside these facilities are changing. A 2024 Pew Research study found that warehouse and manufacturing workers reported some of the lowest satisfaction scores of any employment sector, with poor air quality, noise, and lack of daylight topping the list of complaints. As advanced manufacturing attracts more specialized professionals—engineers, programmers, and technicians—those expectations are rising.
Owners have started to take note. “Owners are trying to make these buildings better places to work,” says John Meko, VP of North America at WiredScore. “Most of them have prebuilt spec suites that are ready for the office workers who are needed for these advanced uses.” After two years of research, WiredScore has opened up its connectivity scores to industrial buildings to help with the transition from metal shells to modern workplaces.
Office components—once an afterthought tucked in a corner—are becoming a key part of industrial design. Break rooms, daylighting strategies, and even wellness amenities are being added to attract talent and help companies compete for workers who could just as easily take jobs in an office or lab. The lines between “industrial” and “commercial” design are beginning to blur.
Still, meeting those new demands isn’t easy. “Industrial has always been looked at as the poor cousin of office in CRE: functional, utilitarian. Now the user requirements are getting much more sophisticated, and the new supply has made it much more competitive,” Meko says. Unlike office buildings, which are designed for a predictable range of uses, industrial buildings can serve everything from cold storage to advanced robotics labs.
One of the things that makes planning for spec-built workspaces so difficult for industrial properties is the wide variety of possible use cases. “Industrial tenants could be nothing more than storage or could be an advanced robotics facility. Offices are pretty standard on how they adopt IT but industrial is all over the board.” Because manufacturing often requires less space than traditional logistics, developers are cutting large buildings into multiple smaller suites. But that segmentation introduces new uncertainty—how many offices do you build before leases are signed, and how do you make sure each suite is flexible enough for whatever type of tenant moves in?
Another layer of complexity comes from connectivity. Many industrial parks sit on the outskirts of metro areas, where internet infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the digital demands of advanced manufacturing. “We see tenants move out and buildings having almost no internet, so they have to start from scratch and be ready for a really sophisticated market,” Meko explains. High-performance broadband is no longer optional—it’s the backbone of automated production lines and operational technology. Yet even new construction can struggle to meet the data throughput and redundancy requirements that modern manufacturers expect.
Some owners have turned to satellite-based solutions as stopgaps, but, as Meko notes, “Starlink is getting really popular, it is a great backstop for buildings with no infrastructure, but it isn’t really there yet when it comes to broadband and latency. As soon as you try to integrate the operational tech, it is going to be overwhelmed.”
This technological gap exposes a deeper truth: industrial buildings are no longer purely physical assets—they’re digital platforms. The rise of 5G networks, IoT systems, and factory automation means buildings must be wired for data as much as for electricity. And just as offices went through a modernization cycle in the early 2000s—retrofitting for broadband, sustainability, and wellness—industrial is now facing its own transformation. Owners are investing in redundant fiber, smart metering, and modular office suites to meet a wider range of tenants, from e-commerce operators to clean tech manufacturers.
The industrial sector’s evolution mirrors a broader shift across commercial real estate: as technology seeps deeper into every type of work, the quality of the workplace, whether it’s a warehouse, factory, or office, becomes a competitive advantage. Industrial space is no longer about just storage or throughput; it’s about enabling production, innovation, and retention. The next generation of industrial buildings will be defined as much by connectivity and comfort as by concrete and clearance height. For an asset class long built around function over form, that’s not just an upgrade, it’s a complete paradigm shift that will require owners to rethink what it means to be an industrial landlord.
By
Franco Faraudo
Editor, Propmodo
Franco Faraudo has an MBA in entrepreneurship and has worked with a wide spectrum of technology and real estate organizations on their branding and content strategy. He has worked in real estate as an agent, manager, and investor. He writes about the intersection between the physical and digital world and is Co-founder and Editor of Propmodo.
