Medium to large industrial users are the sweet spot in Dallas Fort Worth industrial market

Our Q1 industrial reporting found that DFW’s market activity remained solid; as new product deliveries scaled back, so did absorption and leasing. Q1 leasing came in at 9.1 msf. While this may feel off from the ultra-fast quarterly pace of 15-20 msf the last few years, this level is comparable to Q4 2024 – and spot-on with DFW’s 20-year average prior to the recent up-cycle. Looking at deal volume more closely, all size categories were active. The most active sector was small tenants (under 25,000 sf). This sector tallied 77 deals, roughly half of the Q1 deal flow, and accounted for almost 800,000 sf of leasing. At the other end of the range, the market’s largest tenants (those over 500,000 sf) signed only 3 deals in Q1. These users, however, generated leasing demand for almost 2.4 msf. While many choose to focus on a market’s largest, attention-grabbing deals, DFW’s “sweet spot” continues to be the medium to large space user. For these 50,000 to 500,000 sf occupiers, Q1 saw steady demand of 5.1 msf, which accounted for 56% of the space demand – across 42 transactions.