After a stretch of whiplash conditions, Charlotte’s industrial construction market has settled into a more balanced rhythm. Builders and contractors who work on manufacturing and warehousing projects have lived through a trying few years of oversupply and shifting tenant activity.
Whether you’re building tilt-wall distribution centers, fitting out warehouse interiors or supplying materials for speculative commercial parks, the landscape today looks steadier — not booming, but solid and delivering a reliable flow of projects.
Through the first nine months of 2025, the Charlotte metro area had net absorption of 6.8 million square feet of industrial/warehousing space, according to CBRE’s latest market figures. That’s up 63.8% from the same period in 2024, when vacancy rates hit double digits.
By the end of September, vacancies were down to 7.8% while the asking price for rents averaged $10.04 per square foot (triple net), up 5% from the same time last year.
While builders and suppliers may not follow rental rates with the same eye as a commercial real estate broker, the metric is meaningful because rising rents typically support continued speculative development — even at a time like this when lenders remain cautious.
In short, Charlotte digested its oversupply faster than expected and returned to a healthier equilibrium.
What’s behind the rebound
Charlotte’s fundamentals haven’t changed. The region remains one of the Southeast’s most connected logistics hubs, with direct access to I-85, I-77, CSX/Norfolk Southern rail and major consumer markets in both North and South Carolina.
Between 2023 and early 2024, deliveries of newly built space dramatically outpaced leasing. Available inventory throughout the region expanded from 262 million square feet to more than 280 million, based on CBRE and CoStar tallies of industrial inventory. As vacancy rates rose, investors grew wary and developers had to pause projects.
But leasing velocity accelerated throughout 2025, with Cushman & Wakefield reporting 835,000 square feet of net absorption in the first three months of the year and gaining speed ever since.
“At the close of Q3, Walmart announced a $300M investment at Kings Mountain Corporate Center, a 1.2 million-square-foot cross-dock facility, further highlighting the regions’ appeal to large users with an impending move that will fuel growth along the I85 corridor and Gaston County,” Cushman & Wakefield reported.
For builders, this shift translated into fewer postponed tenant-improvement projects, steadier schedules and better bid visibility.
Big-box distribution fuels rebound
Across the nation, one of the liveliest subcategories of demand is big-box construction — not for stores, but for the large distribution facilities that support them. Commercial real estate firm Avison Young notes this activity remains especially strong in and around Charlotte — and deserves recognition for fueling the industrial construction recovery here.
These large facilities serve multistate trade areas and tend to lease in large transactions that quickly tighten vacancy rates.
A 3rd-quarter 2025 market report from Colliers commercial real estate firm identifies 4.4 million square feet of distribution space expected to come online across the region over the coming year, with builders delivering large projects across Cabarrus, Gaston and York counties.
Many of these are being built for specific customers while the number of new speculative groundbreakings has slowed. This is a healthy change from the past two years. When speculative projects cool just enough to match absorption…
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…pricing pressure on subcontractors eases.
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…construction schedules stabilize.
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…material procurement becomes more predictable.
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…rents firm up, supporting the next cycle of development.
What to expect in 2026
Charlotte’s industrial pipeline is no longer in expansion mode; it’s in normalization mode. Multiple market analysis projects:
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Positive but slower absorption in 2026
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Industrial vacancies stabilizing around 8%, a historically healthy level
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Modest rent growth as inventory levels rebalance
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Steady demand from logistics, manufacturing and data-center infrastructure
Data centers are still a small but fast-growing piece of the region’s industrial footprint. These projects typically demand higher electrical capacity, more robust envelope design and tighter moisture control — scopes where many Charlotte-area contractors and suppliers have already built strong competencies.
Builders should also expect continued retrofits and reconfigurations of existing inventory as tenants seek modern clear heights, improved dock configurations and energy-efficient building envelopes.
The bottom line is that Charlotte has worked through a turbulent supply cycle and returned to a balance that favors steady construction opportunities. Absorption of empty space is up, and the region remains one of the Southeast’s most capable markets for filling large-format industrial distribution space, even as national demand cools.
For builders, subcontractors and suppliers, the next 12-18 months should bring predictable bidding pipelines, fewer project pauses and a durable flow of work across the distribution and manufacturing sectors.
Let Best Supply handle your next takeoff for expert advice, on-time delivery and careful shakeout of materials for a safe and profitable jobsite. Give us a call or click here to request a quote.
