The squeeze comes from the replacement cost side. Greenfield construction costs for new small-bay product have risen far enough that a developer needs economic rents above $14.50/SF NNN to justify breaking ground. When existing buildings lease below that line, the math inverts: owning the older asset is cheaper than building its substitute, and new supply stalls.

That inversion is where the pricing power comes from. With little new shallow-bay inventory in the pipeline, owners of functional existing buildings along the Piedmont Crescent can push renewals and new leases toward replacement-cost rents. Our underwriting treats that gap as the core thesis, while still testing each building on its own physical condition and tenant demand.

Slabs come first. We check whether the floor is a 6-inch reinforced slab and look for cracking, settlement, and joint failure that would limit forklift traffic or racking. A slab that fails this check changes the capital plan before anything else is discussed.

Power and yard access are next. We confirm whether the building carries 3-Phase Power and whether the existing 480V 800A service is viable for the tenant mix, then walk the 120-foot WB-50 truck courts to see whether trailers can maneuver without blocking neighboring bays.

The second is automated deed sales ingestion. The CAMA County Ingestion pipeline now collects recorded deed sales across 500+ Southeastern US counties and was deployed alongside the simulator, so underwriting runs start from recorded transactions rather than hand-entered assumptions.

Together these changes shorten the loop between new county data and a stochastic view of cash flow.

The math starts with the 53-foot trailer. Its swing radii set the minimum depth a court needs for a driver to set up and back in a single, controlled move. Courts that fall short force multi-point turns, slow every visit, and push drivers to avoid the site.

That is why a 130-foot apron width commands a 15% rent premium over legacy 105-foot yards. Tenants running regular trailer traffic will pay for a court that works on the first attempt, and on a constrained infill parcel the apron is often the feature that separates a leasable building from a hard one.

The pattern that stands out is the combination of bay rollups and yard storage. When a tenant has both a roll-up door into its bay and usable yard space for equipment, vehicles, or materials, the cost and disruption of moving rises sharply, and renewal propensity climbs with it.

For underwriting, that stickiness matters as much as rent. Lower turnover means less downtime, fewer leasing costs, and more predictable cash flow, which is why we weight bay and yard configuration heavily when evaluating small-bay industrial buildings.