There’s an outperforming real estate sector hiding in plain sight
Industrial outdoor storage is emerging as one of commercial real estate’s quiet outperformers, with demand and rents climbing as AI and data-center construction drive new uses for the land.
IOS covers paved or gravel land used to store equipment, vehicles, containers and supplies — essential back-office support for the movement of goods, with any structure limited to under 25% of the site. Once a mom-and-pop corner of commercial real estate, the sector is now drawing institutional capital as data-center developers use IOS lots to stage generators, tractors and other gear.
There’s $300 billion worth of IOS space that’s owned by businesses, ripe for investment.Leo Addimando, CEO, Alterra IOS (via CNBC)
Alterra IOS, which has acquired more than 406 sites nationwide, points to lean supply and rising rents as the sector’s defining tailwinds. With AI and quantum infrastructure accelerating, IOS is increasingly treated as critical staging ground rather than overlooked dirt.
Source: CNBC, “There’s an outperforming real estate sector hiding in plain sight,” by Diana Olick, November 5, 2025.
