Across all U.S. industrial markets, around 354.1 million square feet of industrial space is currently under construction, representing 1.7% of the total national stock. While development activity remains below the levels seen in 2023 and early 2024, the current pipeline nevertheless marks an increase on the 346.2 million square feet that was underway one year ago. Notably, the pipeline’s share of total national stock holds at 1.7% (unchanged from a year ago) with development growing in step with the market, rather than ahead of it.
Now, given the radical expansion and then dramatic slowdown of the trajectory of recent years, 2026 finds developers taking a more measured approach, although it varies considerably by sector. For instance, the warehouse and logistics industry has grown less speculative and manufacturing spending has pulled back, albeit unevenly across markets. Yet, data centers are now claiming a sizeable chunk of the industrial development pipeline in some of the largest markets in the country.
Texas Takeover as DFW & Houston Lead U.S. Industrial Development Pipelines
#1. Dallas–Fort Worth
DFW has reclaimed the top position in industrial development with 28.8 million square feet currently under construction to give the metro the largest pipeline in the country once again. It’s a distinction the market held just two years ago, when the pipeline climbed to 33.6 million square feet before slipping to 22.6 million the following year. Since then, activity has picked up with 6.2 million square feet added in the last year for a 27% Y-o-Y increase.
Granted, that rebound is occurring against a vacancy rate of 11.4%, which is on the higher side compared to most other major U.S. markets. As such, developers are counting on DFW’s scale and infrastructure to absorb new space. Here, logistics facilities are the largest projects underway in the Metroplex, but manufacturing and data centers are also driving a growing share of new starts. In fact, data centers alone account for roughly 20 projects (or about 11% of the pipeline) and are central to Texas’ push to overtake northern Virginia as the national leader in data center power capacity — a transition that could come within the next few years.
#2. Houston
Houston made one of the largest moves up the rankings in the last year after jumping from fourth to second with 21.5 million square feet now under construction — a 63% increase — and an inventory expansion of 3%. The sharp climb follows two years of incremental growth (itself a recovery from a steep drop between 2023 and 2024) with the pipeline moving from 12.5 million square feet in 2024 to 13.2 million in 2025 before accelerating to its current level.
Here, nearly all of that construction is related to logistics and warehousing. As the nation’s busiest port for foreign waterborne tonnage, the Port of Houston saw volume grow again last year with tonnage up 5%. Plus, ongoing channel-widening, new terminals and land-side infrastructure improvements point to further capacity gains ahead.
What’s more, Houston’s vacancy rate currently sits at 6.3% — down 20 basis points from a year ago and one of only four major markets nationwide where industrial vacancy actually fell year-over-year. Thus, how it responds to the next wave of deliveries will be a real test.
#3. Phoenix
With just more than 18 million square feet of industrial space underway, Phoenix is a market in normalization mode. Just two years ago, the metro led the nation with a staggering 42.5 million square feet under construction. Of course, that record-breaking pace was never sustainable, but the market isn’t cooling off: The pipeline actually ticked up by 400,000 square feet during the last year. This represents a 4% inventory expansion, which is significant for a market that’s already grown as rapidly as Phoenix has this decade.
In this case, data centers have become a primary engine of growth and now account for roughly 2.9 million square feet or 16% of the total pipeline. In particular, Meta’s 2.5-million-square-foot campus in Mesa, Ariz., currently has 1 million square feet under active construction, while Edgecore continues its expansion with 800,000 square feet of its own planned 3.1-million-square-foot footprint also underway nearby. The market’s largest single project, though, is the LG Energy Solution battery plant in Queen Creek, Ariz. The plant spans 1.3 million square feet and represents a $5.5 billion investment, which is the largest single commitment to a standalone battery facility in the country.
#4. Chicago
After a sharp dip to 5.8 million square feet in 2025, Chicago’s industrial pipeline rebounded strongly with 13.6 million square feet now under construction. That puts it just ahead of its 2024 level by around 400,000 square feet. Furthermore, the increase of 7.8 million square feet in the last year is the second-largest gain in sheer volume among the top 20 pipeline markets (behind only Dallas), and moves Chicago back into the top tier after ranking 17th last year.
However, at 12.5%, Chicago currently carries the highest vacancy rate among the top 20 markets in the pipeline ranking, although the pressure is unevenly distributed. For example, infill areas — like the West Loop and Fulton Market — remain exceptionally tight due to relentless demand for last-mile e-commerce. In contrast, the southern suburbs — specifically the I-55 and I-57 corridors — face higher vacancies as pandemic-era sublease space returns to the market.
Despite these headwinds, developers are still placing big bets on Chicagoland’s southern suburbs. Namely, Venture One recently broke ground on a 1.2-million-square-foot build-to-suit for John Deere along the I-55 corridor. Similarly, in University Park, Ill., Hillwood and Clarius Partners are moving forward with a 970,000-square-foot speculative facility in a wager on Chicago’s combination of rail access, intermodal infrastructure and same-day delivery to reach into the region’s densest population centers.
#5. Washington, D.C.
Having more than doubled its pipeline during the last year, Washington, D.C. has grown from 6.2 million to 13.2 million square feet under construction — a jump that moves the market from 15th to fifth. Only Houston and Chicago added more pipeline volume in the last year. And, in a tie with Austin, Texas, at 7%, the capital’s projected inventory expansion is the highest among the top 20 pipeline markets.
Northern Virginia has long been home to Data Center Alley, and its dominance shows up clearly in the pipeline: 6.1 million of the metro’s 13.2 million square feet under construction is data center space, which equates to roughly 46% of all space underway. But, the traditional core around Ashburn, Va., is running into limits: Tighter regulations driven by residential concerns and a shortage of available land have pushed development outward. The result is more than 30 data centers now under construction across a 70-mile stretch from Leesburg, Va., to Fredericksburg, Va., with the bulk of new space arriving in Prince William County and Manassas, Va. This area of Virginia also remains the world’s largest data center market by operating capacity, but how much further it can grow will depend on whether the grid can keep up because power availability is becoming as binding a constraint as land.
#6. Columbus, Ohio
Columbus added 5.4 million square feet to its industrial pipeline during the last year to bring its total to 12.2 million square feet under construction. But, what makes the market distinctive is that manufacturing and data centers together outnumber warehouse and logistics facilities among current projects. That’s an inversion of the typical pipeline mix outside of Washington D.C., and accounts for more than 9 million square feet — or roughly three-quarters of the total — in Columbus.
Much of that activity is concentrating in and around New Albany, Ohio. On Columbus’ northeast fringe, it has become one of the country’s most significant hyperscale data center clusters. Accordingly, data centers alone account for around 21% of the pipeline in this area.
At the same time, Intel’s Ohio One semiconductor fabrication plant has drawn a wave of digital infrastructure investment to the corridor, most notably Meta’s Prometheus campus — described as the world’s first gigawatt-capable data center — that’s slated to open later this year.
#7. Austin, Texas
Cooling steadily, Austin’s industrial pipeline moved from 18.2 million square feet in 2024 to 12.9 million in 2025 and 10.9 million today. With that, it’s now 2 million square feet below last year and 7.3 million below 2024. Yet, the current pipeline represents roughly 7% of Austin’s total industrial space to tie with Washington, D.C. for the largest percentage of inventory under construction among the markets that made the top 20 pipeline ranking this year.
Interestingly, nearly one-third of the pipeline in Austin is one project — Samsung’s 3.59-million-square-foot semiconductor facility in Taylor, Texas, which is also the country’s largest industrial project under construction expected to be delivered this year. But, unlike most large one-off projects in which completion triggers a sharp drop in pipeline volume, Samsung’s Taylor campus is designed for phased expansion, meaning its delivery (penciled in for Q4) is unlikely to mark the end of the site’s contribution to future pipelines.
#8. Atlanta
Atlanta’s industrial pipeline climbed to 10 million square feet, up from 8.2 million a year ago. Here, data centers account for 2.8 million square feet or around 28% of the total, but square footage undersells their presence: Of the roughly 50 industrial projects currently underway in the metro, about 20 are data centers — a ratio that reflects how data centers are built for power density, rather than raw space. Most of that activity is concentrated on the west side of the metro in Lithia Springs, Ga., as well as further south in Palmetto, Ga., and Fayetteville, Ga., where available land and power infrastructure have turned the suburban fringe into Atlanta’s most active data center corridor.
#9. Denver
Denver has been one of the more consistent industrial development markets in recent years with pipeline volume holding within a relatively narrow band — between 6.8 and 8.1 million square feet in the last two years and sitting at 7.9 million today. That said, with an industrial vacancy rate of 12.2% — the second-highest among the top 20 pipeline markets — the depth of occupier demand to absorb new supply is less certain.
Additionally, that concern, at least regarding upcoming deliveries, is somewhat tempered by the fact that the market’s largest projects are built-to-suit: More than one-third of the current pipeline is a single project — Amazon’s 3.5 million square foot logistics facility in Loveland, Colo., to the north of the metro and the largest Amazon development currently in the national pipeline. Also under construction is Pepsi’s 1.2-million-square-foot manufacturing facility that’s set to become the beverage company’s largest in the country.
#10. New Jersey
A year ago, New Jersey’s industrial space under construction placed it just inside the top 20 largest pipelines nationwide. Now, with 7.5 million square feet underway (up from 5.6 million a year ago), the market breaks into the top 10 most active industrial development markets in the country. One of the more established logistics hubs in the nation with a major port and access to a densely populated region, it’s perhaps no surprise that nine of the 10 largest industrial facilities underway in the metro are warehouse and distribution in nature. Notably, Russo Development is the developer for three of the largest projects underway, including the 1.4-million-square-foot Building A at the Kingsland Meadowlands development in Lyndhurst, N.J. — one of the largest logistics-based projects in the market. The same developer is also building a data center in in South Brunswick, N.J., that’s roughly 300,000 square feet in size — large enough to be the sole non-logistics property among the 10 largest industrial projects in the market.
