Data center development is increasingly shaping U.S. industrial real estate demand, according to new analysis from CoStar Group. The firm reports that users whose operations are closely tied to data center activity are now responsible for more than 6% of leasing across logistics properties located within five miles of data center facilities. That share is up from less than 3% in 2020, highlighting how quickly the sector’s influence on nearby industrial space has expanded in just a few years.
CoStar’s data indicates that data center inventory nationally has grown to roughly 69 gigawatts of existing capacity. On top of that installed base, another 43 gigawatts are currently under construction. This pipeline reflects how operators and their ecosystems are scaling to meet demand, with impacts felt across a wide range of related businesses and services tied to data center operations.
The expansion of this infrastructure is supporting broad-based growth across multiple categories directly connected to data center delivery and operations. CoStar notes that construction firms, providers of power and cooling equipment, data center operators and IT infrastructure providers are all seeing increased activity tied to this build-out. Each of these segments plays a role in enabling new capacity and supporting existing facilities as digital requirements expand.
Juan Arias, national director of industrial analytics at CoStar, characterizes data centers as one of the fastest-growing areas within commercial real estate. He points to vacancy levels that remain close to historic lows, as demand from hyperscale cloud providers and AI-related users continues to run ahead of new supply. That imbalance is a key backdrop for both ongoing development and the take-up of industrial space in close proximity to data center hubs.
Within the sector itself, hyperscale facilities now account for 64% of existing data center capacity, underscoring the scale at which major technology companies are building out their infrastructure. The concentration of such large-format facilities helps explain why both specialized industrial occupiers and a wider ecosystem of service providers are increasingly clustering around major data center markets, reinforcing the link between digital infrastructure and adjacent industrial demand.
