Stormy economic conditions are battering small firms in the warehouse leasing sector, but large corporations are picking up the slack, as shown by a jump in the size of warehouses leased during the first half of 2022, the real estate firm CBRE said.

Warehouse users signed leases for 37 facilities of 1 million square feet or larger in the U.S. in the first half of this year, up from 24 in the first half of 2021, Dallas-based CBRE said. The average warehouse size in the 100 largest leases also rose, increasing to 931,860 square feet from 800,149 a year ago.

“The industrial & logistics market preformed solidly in the first half of the year despite headwinds challenging the broader economy,” John Morris, CBRE’s President of Industrial & Logistics in the Americas, said in a release. “We have seen a falloff in leasing by smaller users – those in 25,000 sq. ft. of less – likely due to the economic environment. But the largest users are forging ahead, picking up most of the slack.”

In addition to the sheer size of the latest leases, another sign that large companies are expanding their share is that just 15 of the top 100 leases were renewals, CBRE said.

Sorted by sector, the top three business types that leased the most of those mega-warehouses were general retail and wholesale (40 leases), third party logistics (3PL) (30), and e-commerce only (12). The rest of the list included food and beverage (8), automobile tires and parts (5), building materials and construction (3), and medical (2).

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