What We Buy: Industrial Property, Type by Type

This page lists the kinds of industrial property we buy in Philadelphia and South Jersey. Flex buildings, plants and yards each have a page of their own, linked below. Cold storage and net-leased buildings are covered in full on this page.

Direct Warehouse Buyers is part of a family-owned business that has been operating for over 15 years. Occupied or vacant, modern or dated, we look at each property as it stands.

Every type of industrial property at a glance

Warehouses and distribution buildings

Warehouse and distribution buildings make up most of the industrial space in the region. CBRE tracked 294.12 million square feet of distribution and logistics space in its Philadelphia market in the third quarter of 2026, about three quarters of the total by our arithmetic. That market takes in South Jersey and Northern Delaware. Distribution space was 12.8% vacant, against 11.1% for the market overall.

Demand for that space grew in 2026. CBRE counted 3.72 million square feet of net absorption, the change in occupied space, for distribution and logistics buildings over 2026 through September. Cushman & Wakefield's regional figures leave out Northern Delaware. In the third quarter of 2026, its weighted average net asking rent for warehouse and distribution space was $12.97 per square foot a year.

Buildings under 50,000 square feet were 5.0% vacant in CBRE's third-quarter figures, against 18.8% for buildings of 500,000 to 749,999 square feet. Our flex page shows vacancy for every size range. CBRE calls a building Class A only if it was built after 2000, with at least 32 feet of clear height and ESFR (early suppression, fast response) sprinklers. Clear height is the usable height under the roof structure. A building that misses that test can still sell. Our page on older buildings covers how buyers judge low ceilings, few docks and other dated features, and our seller's guide covers the steps of a sale.

Flex buildings, plants and yards

Three property types have pages of their own, each with different checks and rules.

• Flex and small-bay buildings: office share, clear height and loading, every tenant's lease, and town rules that require a new certificate when a tenant changes.
• Manufacturing plants: selling the building apart from the company, and what buyers check, from power and cranes to floors. The page also covers how permits change hands or close, New Jersey's ISRA and the machinery.
• Truck terminals and yards: Philadelphia's zoning table for terminals and yards, stormwater charges on paved lots, fuel tank registrations, and what a buyer checks on industrial land in Pennsylvania.

Cold storage buildings

PhilaPort says $7.3 billion in food cargo came up the Delaware River in 2023, including $3.9 billion in fruits and vegetables. The Gloucester Marine Terminal in Gloucester City, operated by Gloucester Terminals LLC, offers 25 million cubic feet of refrigerated storage. Lee & Associates wrote in May 2026 that nearly 47% of the Greater Philadelphia region's cold buildings sit within a one-hour drive of PhilaPort.

In a 2024 national report, Colliers said speculative cold storage built since 2021 has clear heights of 36 to 50 feet, heavy power and reinforced floor slabs. Speculative space is built before a tenant signs on. The report also said "much of the existing cold storage product in the U.S. has aged past its prime." Older buildings can be updated. In Florence Township, the owner of a 152,000-square-foot building "recently upgraded the refrigeration system" to help attract tenants, Lee & Associates reported in May 2026.

What does a buyer check on a cold storage building?

Buyers of a cold storage building check the refrigeration system's type, age and refrigerant, the insulated panels and vapor barrier, and the floor. Freezer floors can heave when the soil below freezes, so buyers look for cracks and changes in grade and ask how the under-floor heating works. For an ammonia system, they also ask for its safety and inspection records.

The floor gets special attention in freezers. A 2009 article by a field services executive at Stellar, a design and construction firm, explains the risk. Soil moisture under a freezer "becomes ice, which expands and forms an ice lens." The lens pushes up and heaves the floor. Under-floor heating, through vent tubes, electric heat or heated glycol, is meant to prevent it. The early signs are cracks and "a perceptible change in the floor's grade."

The building shell needs checking too. A 2021 engineering trade article called insulated metal panels the preferred way to build low-temperature space, and said vapor barriers "need to be airtight, not just watertight." When a cold room is built inside a warehouse, refrigeration equipment is often hung from the roof structure, so the article advises having a structural engineer check the steel.

Ammonia and older refrigerants

Some cold storage plants run on ammonia, and two federal programs depend on how much a system holds. The Process Safety Management rule of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) covers a process with 10,000 pounds or more of anhydrous ammonia. EPA's Risk Management Program covers a facility with more than 10,000 pounds in a process. A buyer will ask whether either applies and for the paperwork that goes with it.

IIAR 6, an industry standard for inspecting, testing and maintaining closed-circuit ammonia refrigeration systems, calls for documented inspections and tests. Older systems may run on R-22 instead. EPA says U.S. production and import of R-22 ended January 1, 2020, though existing systems can keep running on recovered and reclaimed R-22 or R-22 made before 2020.

Is a cold storage property sold as real estate or as a business?

A cold storage property can sell as a business or as real estate alone. A buyer can purchase the operating company, customers and staff included, or just the land, the building and the refrigeration equipment the sale agreement lists. In a property sale, the company can be sold separately, close, move or stay on as a tenant under a lease written into the deal.

We buy the real estate. If you want to keep operating, our page on sale-leasebacks explains how selling the building and leasing it back works. If you're retiring or selling the company instead, our page on retiring or selling the business covers the timing. Tell us early which refrigeration equipment stays, so the offer can list it.

Net-leased industrial buildings

Some owners don't use their building at all. They lease it to a business that operates there and pays some or all of the operating costs. We buy those buildings too, with the lease in place.

What is a net-leased industrial building?

A net-leased industrial building is one whose tenant pays base rent plus some or all of the property's operating costs, such as taxes, insurance and maintenance. Under a triple net lease, the tenant pays all three. Under a gross lease, the landlord pays those costs out of the rent. A net-leased building can sell with the lease in place.

The labels describe who pays what. Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute defines single net as base rent plus property taxes, double net as adding insurance, and triple net as adding common-area maintenance too. CBRE's Philadelphia report draws a similar line between gross and net. Its gross lease rates typically include "real property taxes, building insurance, and major maintenance," and its net lease rates exclude one or more of them.

A buyer of a net-leased building reads the lease closely. The buyer looks at how long the lease runs, any renewal options, who handles the roof and structure, and any tenant right to buy the building. Before closing, the buyer asks for an estoppel letter from the tenant confirming the lease terms. Our page on selling with tenants in place covers the documents, tenant purchase rights and how rent and deposits are handled at closing.

Two rules can come up with leased industrial buildings. In New Jersey, a tenant may run a business covered by ISRA. The law's duties fall on the owner or operator, so the lease should say who handles them. Our ISRA guide covers landlords and tenants under ISRA. Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections doesn't require a new certificate of occupancy when a building changes owners or tenants, as long as its approved use doesn't change.

Older, vacant or environmental properties

Condition doesn't rule a property out. Nothing has to be fixed before you sell to us, and our offer prices the condition we've seen and what you've told us. These pages cover each situation:

• An older or obsolete building, with low ceilings, few docks or several floors
• A vacant building or a tenant leaving, and the rules for empty buildings
• Environmental problems, including old tanks, Pennsylvania's Act 2 and New Jersey's ISRA
• A building that needs repairs, and the town rules that apply at a sale

Where we buy these properties

We buy in seven counties, 265 municipalities in all. Each county page covers the local market, transfer taxes, resale rules and industrial areas: Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware in Pennsylvania, and Camden, Burlington and Gloucester in New Jersey.

Selling your property to us

Send the address and what you know about the property. We walk it with you and look at the building, the systems, the site and any leases. Then we send a written as-is offer with the price, a proposed closing date and which costs each side pays. We charge no commission and no fees.

We can't promise a set number of days. When you sell to us, you choose the date, within the required steps and the due diligence period in our offer. How It Works covers each step, and the FAQ answers the common questions.