Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1382333
22 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 14, 2021 FOCUS: Logistics & Distribution Store to Door Hartford's distribution real estate market is red hot; here's a peek inside a modern logistics warehouse By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com M ajor distribution centers have been popping up along Connecticut's I-91 corridor in recent years, but to the average passerby, the buildings appear to be nothing more than giant, mundane storage facilities. But inside these modern warehouses, workers and machines weave a complex web of inventory control, delivery routes and incoming and outgoing orders. At Veritiv Corp.'s 458,000-square- foot Bacon Road distribution center in Enfield, forklifts beep as they whip around the floor, bringing pallets of products to storage shelves that reach toward the top of the building. Warehouse workers scan items into inventory and others pick products off shelves for delivery, while employees in the back of the facility map out delivery routes, and where to place products based on how fast they sell. The cacophony of scanner beeps, forklift horns and machinery whirring play over a background of classic rock radio 24 hours a day. Veritiv uses the massive facility to sell its printing, packaging and other products to businesses, and it represents just a small slice of the 76 million square feet of industrial space in the Greater Hartford market. Demand for such facilities is booming as the pre-existing trend of customers expecting faster delivery has collided with a pandemic-era surge in e-commerce, experts say. Amazon has grabbed many of the headlines for its growing distribution footprint in central Connecticut and beyond, but demand for such space is coming from retailers and distributors of all stripes, making industrial properties the hottest segment of the state's commercial real estate market. "I've been doing this for 35 years, and this is as hot a market as I've ever experienced," said Mark Duclos, president of Sentry Commercial in Hartford, which specializes in brokerage and consulting of industrial, office and investment real estate. "The whole logistics, e-commerce market was there before the pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated this — it put it on steroids." The distribution market has been Mark Duclos Scott High is the operations manager at Veritiv Corp.'s 458,000-square-foot Bacon Road distribution center in Enfield. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER