Billions Of Square Feet, Untapped: Inside Flexible Warehouse Leases

Across the U.S. industrial landscape, billions of square feet of warehouse space sit unused at any given moment.

For property owners, securing a long-term tenant can take months—or even years—leaving valuable space idle and revenue unrealized. Increasingly, however, short-term industrial leasing is transforming that downtime into income.

“There are times it will take 12, 24, even 36 months to finalize a deal with a 10- or 15-year tenant,” says Keith Hovan, CEO of short-term warehouse marketplace Warehub. “In the meantime, there are companies willing to lease space for shorter periods, allowing owners to generate cash flow while a long-term deal is in progress.”

These temporary tenants often have highly specific needs, such as testing new markets, launching products, or managing seasonal demand spikes. Government agencies also rely on short-term space. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, for example, uses temporary warehouses to stage supplies and equipment ahead of natural disasters. Seasonal demand spans multiple industries, from agriculture—where farmers store harvested crops—to retail businesses preparing for peak selling seasons.

The opportunity is vast. According to Hovan, Warehub tracks approximately 19.5 billion square feet of total U.S. warehouse inventory. With vacancy rates around 7.5%, that equates to roughly 1.4 to 1.5 billion square feet of unused space—square footage that could be monetized through flexible leasing. External market disruptions have further accelerated demand. Trade tariffs, for instance, have prompted companies to seek rapid storage solutions.

“One of our 3PL clients needed to move 250,000 cases of beer from Mexico quickly so they wouldn’t be impacted by tariff changes,” Hovan notes.

Warehub aims to modernize what Hovan describes as a historically inefficient process—one that has been “highly people-dependent, not automated, not digitized, cumbersome, and slow.” Through the platform, property owners list available warehouse space, while occupiers can reserve all or part of a facility. Owners can then subdivide the space as needed.

“A landlord can list a property and specify the total square footage available,” Hovan explains. “If a user only needs a portion of that space, they can request a reservation.”

Beyond matching landlords and tenants, Warehub positions itself as a full life-cycle industrial leasing platform. Users can search and secure space online, manage day-to-day operations during the lease term, and arrange on-site necessities—from forklifts and pallet wrappers to temporary restroom facilities.

Source: GlobeSt