The size of the average warehouse completed this year was 188,000 square feet, more than double the size in 2001. And ceilings were 21% higher.

As Americans spend more money shopping online, real estate developers are sinking record amounts of money into new warehouse space, building bigger, taller structures to meet the needs of e-commerce — and the robots that help it along.

Builders spent $2.6 billion on U.S. warehouse construction in September, more than triple the figure in September 2012, according to the census.

The size of the average warehouse completed this year was 188,000 square feet, according to a report published this week by CBRE Group Inc., more than double the size in 2001.

Developers are also raising their roofs, with ceiling heights up 21% over that period.

Warehouses are getting bigger for the same reason retailers and logistics firms are building more of them.

“It’s the notion of the endless aisle,” said Joe Dunlap, a managing director at CBRE. A retailer that stocks 30,000 items in its stores might offer 10 times as many items for sale online. More stock requires larger footprints. Higher ceilings accommodate mezzanine levels, letting operators cram more shelves into a building.

Read the entire article in MHLNews.com here.