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(Credit: Creative Commons ) This article is the first of a two-part series looking at how online retailing has changed warehouse construction. Part two will appear tomorrow. As e-commerce has soared in popularity, U.S. warehouses have evolved to meet the needs of online retailers, transforming from basic storerooms into automated, material-handling nerve centers. Driven by consumers’ desire for fast and reliable delivery of everything from furniture and clothes to milk and toothpaste, these modern facilities are crucial parts of the supply chain for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar brands like Amazon, Whole Foods, Kroger’s and Wal-Mart. “It used to be that if a consumer ordered something and it showed up in five to seven days it was good service but now they are demanding that same item the next day or even the same day in certain locations,” said Chris Zubel, senior managing director of real estate company and research firm CBRE. This expectation has led to a huge shortage of facilities that can quickly and efficiently process and ship massive amounts of merchandise, said Zubel. In fact, demand for distribution space is so great that builders and developers can’t keep up. CBRE reports that available warehouse space has come up short by about 170 million square feet every year since 2015. To meet the demand, several large markets across the U.S. have seen an uptick in distribution center construction this year, including Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago (see chart below). (Credit: CBRE) The race to get products to the end-user as fast as possible has transformed the way warehouses are designed and built, said Brock Grayson, vice president at Layton Construction, which has constructed 10 million square feet of e-commerce distribution centers in the past five years for clients including Amazon, Macy’s, Home Goods and UPS. “When I started in […]