Weekly Real Estate News
Summary
Newmark announced on October 19 the launch of a dedicated North American industrial outdoor storage advisory practice covering truck terminals, trailer parking, equipment yards and related sites. Newmark research estimates rents for this property type rose 123% from 2020 to 2025 and mid-2026 vacancy was 5.8%, versus 7.4% for the overall industrial market. These are company research figures, not independently audited official statistics.
Newmark has formed a dedicated industrial outdoor storage brokerage practice, expanding its coverage of truck yards, fleet parking sites and equipment storage as investors look beyond conventional warehouses for industrial property opportunities.
The firm announced the North American practice October 19. It will combine leasing and tenant representation with investment sales, financing, sale-leasebacks and merger-and-acquisition advisory for sites that are used primarily to store or stage vehicles, trailers, materials and equipment outdoors.
Industrial outdoor storage, often shortened to IOS, is a distinct real estate category. An open-air yard serving a trucking fleet has different building needs and entitlement risks from a distribution center, even when both sit near the same freight corridor.
Rent gains draw institutional attention
Newmark’s own research estimates that industrial outdoor storage rents increased 123% between 2020 and 2025, more than twice the rise in bulk warehouse rents over the same period. It put IOS vacancy at 5.8% in mid-2026, compared with 7.4% for the overall industrial market.
Those figures describe Newmark’s tracked market and methodology, rather than an official federal statistical series. The brokerage did not provide a complete property-level sample or detailed rent-weighting methodology in the launch announcement. They nevertheless help explain why a service firm is assigning dedicated personnel to a property type that historically received less institutional attention.
The new team is led by Adam Petrillo, Jerry Hopkins, Reid Halverson, Steve Korfiatis, Mike Viehmann and Cam Warren. Newmark says the practice draws on advisers in the United States and Canada and will coordinate with its industrial capital markets business.
Newmark pointed to a previous sale-leaseback involving a 15-property, 1.53-million-square-foot outdoor storage portfolio as an example of the assignments its specialists have handled. The announcement did not identify a new acquisition or financing commitment associated with the practice launch itself.
Land availability can be an important constraint. Truck yards may need large paved or stabilized surfaces, highway access, turning room, security and permissions for outdoor equipment storage. Zoning rules, stormwater requirements and neighbors’ concerns about truck traffic can limit where new sites are approved. Those barriers can protect the value of existing permitted locations while increasing development costs.
There is also a difference between an attractive asset class and a uniformly strong market. Lease duration, tenant credit, environmental obligations and the expense of maintaining large paved sites can vary considerably. A rent index cannot tell an investor whether a particular yard will generate an acceptable return.
WRE recently reported on industrial leasing trends from JLL, where modern warehouses benefited from some specialized supply-chain demand. The Newmark launch shows another branch of the sector drawing dedicated advisory capacity.
The immediate development is organizational: a brokerage has formally launched a practice and identified its leadership. The impact on transaction volumes, lending and investment returns will have to be measured through subsequent deals.
Primary source: Newmark investor-relations announcement, October 19, 2026. Featured photograph: Fujiphilm / Unsplash; illustrative industrial site, not a Newmark client property.
