Rob Antrobius

“The industrial sector experienced not only a rapid comeback from any downturn at the outset of the pandemic, but we just went from being in decent demand to some incredible demand,” Antrobius said.

With supply-chain issues plaguing ports worldwide, and the Port of Los Angeles struggling right along with them, no one wants to get caught short on supplies. Customers have been coming to Antrobius with more space needs, and he wants Prologis to be a one-stop shop for everything logistics — from contractors to machinery. 

“We’ve been laser-focused on our customers and offering them additional resources programs,” Antrobius said. “We’re really looking beyond just the real estate for customers within the portfolio. And we really feel strongly that by paying attention to them like this is going to pay us dividends in the future.”

Dealmaking has sped on during the pandemic for Prologis’ teams, even as the ports have slowed down. The company acquired a Greyhound bus site in downtown Los Angeles for $90 million with plans to lease it out once Greyhound’s lease expires at the end of next year. It also purchased an 11-acre site in Commerce, Calif., for $41 million in 2019 and leased it out this year to distributor Performance Team.

Last year, Prologis redeveloped a missile manufacturing site in Vernon, Calif., into two logistics sites, leased by U.S. Elogistics Service Corp., which took 232,000 square feet, and XPO Logistics, which took 113,000. — C.Y.