A tightening industrial vacancy rate and a diminishing development pipeline have pushed Dallas-Fort Worth to the upper echelon of U.S. warehouse and logistics markets. 

Marcus & Millichap ranked DFW No. 3 on its new 2026 National Industrial Index as private investors have fueled metrowide transaction growth. Trading increased by around 40% year-over-year through the first quarter in DFW, thanks to a nearly 50% increase in transactions in the $1M to $10M range.

The national brokerage firm attributed that increase to DFW’s rising long-term investment demand due to the region’s robust employment growth, growing leasing momentum and diminishing supply. 

Courtesy of CapRock Partners

CapRock Partners broke ground on the 250K SF McKinney Air Business Park near the McKinney National Airport earlier this year.

“DFW is seen across the nation as a hub [for employment], with a diversified economy, massive population growth, good infrastructure,” Marcus & Millichap Senior Managing Director of Investments Adam Abushagur said of the factors that play into investors’ confidence in the metro. “We’ve been less affected by this cycle compared to a lot of other markets across the U.S, such as an LA, a New York and so on.”

Charlotte and Orlando, Florida, topped the industrial index, and the rest of the top 10 was filled out by Sun Belt and Midwest cities with a strong supply-demand balance, while Los Angeles and New York City were at Nos. 20 and 21, respectively. The declining development pipeline has tempered vacancy risks in DFW and many Sun Belt and Midwest markets, according to Marcus & Millichap’s 2026 Industrial Investment Midyear Outlook.

Marcus & Millichap projected DFW will add around 40,000 net new jobs in 2026. That employment growth, coupled with the region’s expanding population, is fueling just about all project types in the region, Abushagur said. 

For the industrial sector, employment and population growth mean more warehouse space is needed as more products need to be manufactured and delivered. Plus, more small businesses are occupying shallow-bay spaces, which is also contributing to the region’s tightening vacancy rate. 

DFW completions are projected to hit their lowest level since 2013, pushing the sector’s vacancy rate down to 8.9% in the first quarter. That’s the region’s lowest rate in three years.

Industrial demand has been strong in DFW for several years, but investors’ appetites have shifted away from the smaller infill assets that had been most popular, according to Trey McGhin, a principal at the land brokerage and investment firm Dosch Marshall Real Estate.

“Over the last 12 months, institutional equity has really returned for the industrial development market, and that, coupled with the tightening vacancy rates and supply being at a lower point, groups are now … really trying to pursue bigger product again,” McGhin said.

That has led to investors making deals in the higher-growth areas of the metro have more available land for development. Areas like Denton, South Dallas, Rockwall, Royce City, Terrell, Forney and Waxahachie are seeing renewed demand because of the desire to build 500K SF to 1M SF facilities, McGhin said.

McKinney has emerged as the hottest industrial market in DFW over the last year. Despite having one of the smallest industrial footprints in the region, it boasts some of DFW’s highest rents, thanks to tremendous growth around the expanding McKinney National Airport.

While McGhin expects demand to remain strong in the submarket, many of the best deals have already been done. 

“You’re starting to get to the point where a lot of those McKinney opportunities are more picked over,” McGhin said. “They still exist, but there’s definitely going to be more push to be on sort of the east side of the airport.”

Developers have also moved north of McKinney to the emerging city of Melissa for industrial opportunities, according to McGhin. 

The Fort Worth logistics corridor, northeast Dallas and the South Stemmons submarket are also expected to continue attracting investor attention this year, Marcus & Millichap reported. 

Abushagur attributed the increased investor confidence in DFW to the region’s status as a steady market on the national scene. McGhin said the return of institutional equity has also boosted investor confidence in getting deals capitalized. 

“When times are tough, it’s a lot easier to find $15M from a capital group than it is to go find $40M from a capital group,” McGhin said. “With the leasing being stronger, vacancy being tighter … and there just being more liquidity in the industrial capital markets, all of that is leading to more and larger deal activity.”

Coming out of the pandemic, Dallas-Fort Worth was the No. 1 destination for corporate relocations by a wide margin, but in 2026, the competition is much fiercer, from within Texas and beyond. 

Several internal and external factors have site selectors thinking twice about automatically recommending DFW to their top-tier clients, including rising regional home prices, questions about Dallas’ office market and the rapid ascension of competing national markets. At the same time, more companies are opting to establish regional hubs instead of fully relocating to the metro.  

“DFW had record-shattering success a few years ago … but it’s difficult to sustain that type of success year after year after year,” said John Boyd Jr., principal of Florida-based corporate site selection specialist The Boyd Co.

Bisnow/created with ChatGPT

DFW has added more than 100 corporate headquarters since 2018, thanks to its business-friendly climate, growing population and land availability. The region now boasts more than 20 Fortune 500 companies, and its publicly traded firms have a combined market value of approximately $1.5T.

However, construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.’s move to Irving in 2022 was the last Fortune 500 company to relocate its headquarters to DFW. 

Fierce Competition

DFW’s Fortune 500 relocation momentum has stalled just as markets like Miami, Charlotte and Phoenix have emerged as major contenders to DFW’s relocation throne. Those cities have their own growing talent pools, business-friendly environments and supportive infrastructures, according to a new CBRE report. 

Without new corporate tenants coming into the market, the future of DFW’s office sector begins to look murky. 

Corporate relocations and Y’all Street fueled the region’s trophy office market last year, but new trophy product is limited, and companies haven’t lined up to fill the 1M SF of office space in Whitacre Tower that will be left vacant when AT&T moves to Plano. 

Intrastate relocations have become more common than full corporate moves in recent years, as have companies establishing regional headquarters in North Texas, according to Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber.

He cited Goldman Sachs’ 800K SF regional campus in Dallas and ScotiaBank’s 133K SF lease at Victory Commons One as examples of these regional hubs and what they bring to the metro. 

Across the country, corporate headquarters relocations grew by more than 70% from 2024 to 2025, according to CBRE. 

DFW nabbed 11 of the 164 headquarters relocations last year, the most of any city in the country. Seven companies also made intrastate moves to DFW, including some that consolidated operations to rightsize their footprints in the metro, according to CBRE.

The Miami metro was second in the nation, with eight new corporate headquarters in 2025, and it scored Palantir Technologies earlier this year. The Austin, Charlotte and New York metros were right behind Miami with seven new headquarters each. 

A North Texas highway

Some of those cities also received more support than DFW from site selectors surveyed this year about the best cities for corporate headquarters projects. After topping Site Selector magazine’s list of best cities for headquarters last year, Dallas fell to fourth this year, behind Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte. 

Rising home prices in DFW have also made a move to the metro less attractive for corporate executives, who no longer get as much bang for their buck. Median listing prices for homes in DFW have risen more than 40% since the start of the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

Winning Formula

With an abundance of undeveloped land, a pro-business climate and a diverse, educated workforce, Texas metros have been the biggest winners of corporate relocations for close to a decade. DFW gained the most new headquarters in the country during that time for those factors, as well as a high quality of life and affordability for businesses, JLL Executive Managing Director Bret Hefton said. 

The region’s favorable tax climate, with no state or local income taxes, is always attractive to companies.

“That’s a big factor when you’re talking to companies that are relocating or considering relocation from New York and California,” Hefton said.

He also praised the metro’s growth and central location in the U.S., which allows for easy transportation to anywhere in the country. 

DFW’s nearly 124,000 new residents made up the second-largest population increase in the nation for the 12 months that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data released last month. 

Booming markets in Collin, Denton and Kaufman counties continue to land major mixed-use projects and master-planned communities for those new residents because of their large swaths of undeveloped land.

The region’s growing population helps companies find workers when they relocate, as does its strong talent pipeline coming from a diverse range of educational institutions, said Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber. 

The Dallas skyline

DFW is also unique for its diversified industries, which allow it to cast a wide net when trying to attract relocations. 

“Whereas Houston is very energy-driven and even though we’ve become more financial services-focused, we’re not nearly as dependent upon that industry as some other markets are with other industries,” Hefton said. 

Looking Ahead 

Many of the nation’s high-growth markets have seen skyrocketing home prices and costs of living, so DFW isn’t alone in struggling to score huge corporate relocations, Boyd said. Concerns about how artificial intelligence will affect real estate commitments in the years ahead have also prompted companies to favor intrastate moves and regional hub setups instead of full headquarters relocations. 

Companies are expected to continue picking DFW for secondary headquarters and regional hubs, but there will also be more full corporate relocations to the metro. 

“That’s what these decisions are based on — it comes to ‘where do we grow?'” Rosa said. 

Hefton said DFW remains a popular destination nationwide for companies considering a move. 

JLL has also engaged with several companies about possible relocations to DFW, but none have yet made full commitments. Still, Hefton said it is inevitable that DFW will see another major corporate relocation soon.  

“There’s a good chance that there will be an announcement in the next 12 months,” Hefton said.

Surging demand for build-to-rent projects has pushed Texas to the top of the nation for home rental construction in the pipeline, with Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 2 among all large metros based on the same metric.  

Courtesy NexMetro Communities

NexMetro Communities’ Avilla Boat Club rental community is located in Fort Worth.

The Lone Star State’s total of nearly 22,000 BTR projects on the way is over 56% higher than Arizona, which is the next closest state with nearly 14,000 projects in the pipeline.

The only metro to surpass DFW’s almost 8,500 home rental projects under construction was Phoenix, which has more than 13,000 BTR projects in the works, according to an analysis from Point2Homes using data from Yardi Matrix. 

Texas’ three other largest metros each placed in the national top 10 for under-construction projects of the multifamily housing option that feels more like single-family residential. Houston was at No. 5 in the nation with more than 4,600 BTR projects under construction, followed by Austin at No. 6 with 4,300-plus units on the way and San Antonio at No. 8 with nearly 3,000.

“As urban areas become more congested and expensive, there’s a growing trend towards suburban living,” Yardi Matrix Manager of Business Intelligence Doug Ressler said in a statement. “BTR properties in suburban areas offer more space and affordability while maintaining connectivity to urban centers.”

The biggest chunk of BTR projects under construction in DFW are Fort Worth’s more than 1,800 rental homes in the pipeline, CultureMap Dallas reported. More than a third of those will be part of Living Fully Orchard Farms development in Fort Worth.

McKinney has nearly 1,300 units on the way, the only other city close to Fort Worth’s total, though Princeton and Melissa also have huge BTR communities on the horizon. Oxenfree at Princeton will feature more than 400 BTR units, while Wolf Creek Farms will bring nearly 350 units to Melissa. 

The state’s strong job market, openness to remote work and business-friendly climate were cited as reasons for the growth of BTR in Texas. BTR’s affordability was also a factor, as Ressler said renters can save around $1,000 per month compared to elevated home prices and high mortgage rates. 

“The biggest hurdle to buying a home for BTR residents is high mortgage rates, so BTR homes provide an affordability solution in today’s increasingly expensive housing market,” Ressler said. “On average, renting a BTR unit is cheaper than buying a starter home.”

Atlanta’s nearly 7,000 BTR projects on the way placed it at No. 3 in the nation, followed by Charlotte at No. 4 with more than 5,300 units in the pipeline. 

MDH Partners recently acquired a one-million-square-foot Dallas industrial property. The Dallas Business Journal reports that the company used a $258 million loan to purchase portions of the site.

The Commerce 20 industrial park at 4601 and 4951 Langdon Road sits on just over 100 acres. It was developed by Hillwood and houses tenants such as Olam Cotton, Fischer Scientific and Genco.

Hillwood and CBRE have been handling leasing on the property.

Commerce 20 is just one of around 30 buildings that MDH purchased last year. The firm said it acquired more than 9 million square feet across 11 markets including Austin, South Carolina and Orlando. The properties had an average occupancy rate of 99% and average lease term of more than five years.

MDH Partners was founded in 2005.

JLL Capital Markets arranged a $108 million refinancing with New York Life Real Estate Investors for a 13-property, self-storage portfolio located throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. On behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between Hines and Trez Capital, JLL Capital Markets arranged the five-year, fixed-rate loan through New York Life Real Estate Investors, who was able to provide an early rate lock, interest-only payments, and prepayment flexibility early in the loan term. 

The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team representing Hines included Director John Bauman and Analyst Jordan Buck. 

The list of locations for the 13 self-storage properties with the Hines-Trez Capital joint venture’s portfolio includes:

• 1251 W. Exchange Parkway, Allen
• 700 Debbie Lane, Arlington
• 2130 W Pleasant Ridge Road, Arlington
• 2444 Luna Road, Carrollton
• 4321 Creek Valley Blvd., Carrollton
• 4201 Paige Road, The Colony
• 4205 Gannon Lane, Dallas
• 1410 N Duncanville Rd., Duncanville
• 1460 S Interstate 35E, Lancaster
• 3645 N Houston School Road, Lancaster
• 525 N Ave., Plano
• 6404 Hwy. 78, Sachse
• 570 Country Club Road, Wylie

SRS Real Estate Partners completed the $7.44 million sale of an 8,042-square-foot medical office property situated on just over a one-acre parcel in Watauga, a DFW suburb. Total Point Urgent Care is the tenant in the building.

The closing cap rate was 7.25%. The property has a new, 20-year absolute triple net lease in place, providing the new ownership with zero landlord responsibilities. SRS’s Kyle Fant added, “Despite lower transaction volume this past year, buyer demand for long-term, absolute triple net leases in income tax-free markets like Texas is exceptionally strong.”

The seller was an out-of-state investor. The buyer was a private investor from Texas who was in a 1031 exchange.

The building fronts Denton Highway and is next to Watauga Pavilion, a 206,000-square foot shopping center. 

Paint giant Sherwin-Williams is not moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas-Fort Worth. 

The company confirmed Thursday it will remain in Ohio and construct a new headquarters in Downtown Cleveland. 

Bisnow/Vanessa Infanzon

The paint manufacturer also intends to develop a major research and development facility in the nearby suburb of Brecksville. 

Sherwin-Williams made this decision after a long search process that reportedly had both Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta on its list of possibilities. 

“Our plans to continue investing in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio build on our 154-year legacy as one of the region’s top employers and drivers of economic activity,” Sherwin-Williams Chairman and CEO John Morikis said in a press release. 

Sherwin-Williams would have been a major boon for DFW, with the company planning to pour $600M into its new Cleveland-area facilities. 

Sherwin-Williams is not the first major headquarters to shop DFW and then turn away in recent memory.

Amazon chose Virginia over North Texas for a second headquarters at the end of 2018, while retailer Lowe’s chose Charlotte over DFW in the middle of last year when prowling the nation for a 2,000-person tech hub. 

DFW, of course, maintained its share of corporate relocation victories with the PGA moving its headquarters to Frisco and several San Fransisco mega-firms — including Uber — choosing to either create office hubs in DFW or outright move their headquarters to the area. 

Market analysts warned in mid-2019 that DFW could lose some of its edge when it comes to corporate relocation activity. 

Analysts at the time feared rising wages, rising property taxes and a lower unemployment rate, which leads to less worker availability and market cannibalization. 

RSM U.S. LLP Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas said at the time that all of the above would continue to create hurdles for relocating companies. 

“I think some of the internal issues in the state, especially around property taxes and a lack of labor, which drives up wages, suggest that things have slowed somewhat and at least for this year, it has fallen from the top perch in the CNBC study,” Brusuelas said last year, when discussing Texas’ fall from first place in CNBC’s best places to do business survey.