Foreign investments in American industrial property soared last year, and Toledo more than held its own. It’s a sign that the United States and northwest Ohio are considered good places to do business.
New reports by national real estate firm CBRE and by the Regional Growth Partnership showed record levels of foreign direct investment in 2018 in industrial real estate. Nationally, $14.4 billion worth of investments were made by foreign individuals and companies. In a 17-county northwest Ohio region, there was $772 million of foreign direct investments.
The national figure was up 150 percent from the prior year, and more than two-thirds of the investments were from Canada and China. It seems to be an indication that, despite some mixed economic reports and sharply divided political discourse, the United States is considered a desirable place by foreigners to get a good return on investment, perhaps more so than in other nations.
Nationally, foreign investments in industry property have risen 68 percent over the past five years, and more growth is expected this year, though perhaps not at the same pace, a CBRE executive said. Experts aren’t concerned at this stage that the amount of foreign investment poses a potential danger to U.S. industry performance and strategy.
CBRE said investments mostly involved property along the coasts and in the South, with Los Angeles, Dallas, and Chicago being the top three markets.
The next wave of foreign investment, a CBRE executive said, likely would be in secondary cities, such as Columbus and Cincinnati, with cities the size of Toledo benefiting after that.
But northwest Ohio has already hit the jackpot. Foreign investments in local industrial property, often driven by a couple dozen small and midsized projects and a few big ones, was bolstered last year by Japan-based NSG Group’s new glass plant under construction in Wood County and Italy-based Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ retooling of part of its Toledo Assembly Complex to make the Jeep Gladiator.
Paul Zito of the Regional Growth Partnership attributed the area’s performance on a good work force, highway system, relatively low cost of doing business, and a manufacturing history. Relatively low rent for factory or warehouse space likely contributed as well.
Mr. Zito said the “pipeline is full” for new foreign investments for 2019, bouyed in part by new, unused industrial buildings that are to be available for potential users looking to find space they can move into quickly.
It’s refreshing that U.S. and Toledo area industrial property is considered of value by foreign investors, proven by such high numbers.
First Published May 1, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
