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Cold storage and Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) market data reveal two segments moving in opposite directions inside the same industrial asset class. IOS carries the widest spread of market rent over in-place rent in CompStak’s industrial dataset, at 29.8% as of Q1 2026, per CompStak’s 2026 Biannual Industrial Market Overview — Part Two. Cold storage, by contrast, isn’t yet a segment CompStak tracks as a distinct rent series, and that coverage gap matters for how investors underwrite each type of asset.
Key Takeaway: IOS shows the largest mark-to-market opportunity in industrial real estate, 29.8% above in-place rent as of Q1 2026. Mega-format industrial (11.4%) and Large (10.0%) trail well behind, and Small Bay barely moves at 1.4%. Cold storage remains embedded in industrial data without a distinct rent index, so investors need to underwrite it using general industrial comps and structure-level detail (STNL premiums, WALT, lease term) rather than a segment-specific benchmark.
The IOS Rent Spread Is the Widest in Industrial
Industrial outdoor storage sites are repricing faster than any other industrial segment CompStak tracks. Market rent runs 29.8% above in-place rent for IOS as of Q1 2026. That compares with 11.4% for Mega-format buildings, 10.0% for Large, 8.7% for Mid-Size, and just 1.4% for Small Bay, per CompStak’s 2026 Biannual Industrial Market Overview — Part Two.
| Segment | Market Rent Spread Over In-Place (Q1 2026) |
|---|---|
| IOS (industrial outdoor storage) | 29.8% |
| Mega | 11.4% |
| Large | 10.0% |
| Mid-Size | 8.7% |
| Small Bay | 1.4% |
Source: CompStak’s 2026 Biannual Industrial Market Overview — Part Two. Data as of Q1 2026.
A spread this wide means leases signed several years ago are sitting well below what a new IOS deal would command today. For landlords, that’s embedded upside at renewal. For appraisers and lenders, it’s a warning against valuing IOS parcels off trailing in-place rent alone. Mark-to-market on this scale changes NOI projections materially once a lease rolls.
National Industrial Rent Growth Is Flat. IOS Isn’t.
The national industrial market looks stable on the surface. The headline, quality-adjusted CCRI has been flat for eight straight quarters, per CompStak’s 2026 Biannual Industrial Market Overview — Part One. The national Columbia CompStak Rent Index for industrial reached $11.92/SF, up 3.9% year over year, as of May 2026.
That national flatness hides a split. IOS’s 29.8% mark-to-market gap sits far above the market average. That gap tells a different story than the headline number suggests. Investors reading only the national index would miss where the real repricing is happening.
Segment Mix Is Shifting Toward the Extremes
The size distribution of industrial leasing is barbelling. Mega-format lease value climbed 650 basis points, from 11.9% to 18.4% of the mix. Small Bay reached a dataset peak of 40.7%, up 500 basis points from 2025, per Part Two of CompStak’s Biannual Industrial Market Overview.
IOS and large-format cold storage facilities typically sit in the Mega and Large bands, where mark-to-market spreads run higher than the market average. Small Bay’s growth reflects a different tenant base entirely, one with far less rent upside embedded in current leases.
STNL Structure Adds a Premium Worth Tracking
Many large-format industrial deals, including cold storage and IOS sites, use a single-tenant net lease (STNL) structure. That structure carries its own rent premium. STNL starting rents held above a 5% premium over non-STNL for four consecutive quarters, reaching 5.6% in Q1 2026 at $11.46/SF versus $10.85/SF, per CompStak’s 2026 Biannual Industrial Market Overview — Part Three. Since Q1 2019, STNL rents grew 93.3% cumulatively versus 76.1% for non-STNL.
For a cold storage or IOS deal structured as STNL, that premium compounds with the segment’s mark-to-market gap. It’s a second lever worth isolating in underwriting, separate from the size-band effect.
Market-Level Context for IOS-Heavy Corridors
IOS activity concentrates in a handful of coastal and infill markets where land is scarce and truck staging demand runs high. The table below shows where those markets sit on the Columbia CompStak Rent Index (CCRI) as of Q1 2026.
| Market | CCRI Level ($/SF) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| Greater Los Angeles | $16.81 | -2.2% |
| Inland Empire | $13.03 | -2.8% |
| New Jersey | $17.82 | +2.8% |
| Philadelphia | $15.08 | -1.0% |
| Chicago Metro | $8.64 | +11.0% |
Source: Columbia CompStak Rent Index (CCRI), developed with Columbia Business School. Data as of Q1 2026.
Los Angeles and the Inland Empire are both dense with IOS and outdoor-storage-adjacent product. Both show negative year-over-year rent growth, even as the segment’s mark-to-market spread runs highest nationally. That divergence is worth sitting with. Declining headline rents don’t rule out significant releasing upside on individual assets once older leases roll.
Where Cold Storage Data Still Falls Short
Cold storage doesn’t carry a distinct rent index inside CompStak’s industrial data today. CompStak covers Office, Retail, Industrial, Multi-Family (powered by RealPage), Flex, R&D, and Land across 105+ US markets. Temperature-controlled facilities fall under the broader industrial category rather than as a standalone series. That means investors underwriting cold storage need to lean on general industrial comps, STNL structure data, and size-band spreads rather than a segment-specific benchmark.
That gap should close over time. CompStak’s comp volume, now more than 4 million comps received across a network of 40,000+ verified CRE professionals, grows through CompStak Exchange. Brokers and analysts submit and verify deals there in real time. As more temperature-controlled transactions flow through that pipeline, a distinct cold storage read becomes more feasible.
What This Means for Underwriting
Investors modeling IOS acquisitions or renewals should anchor projections to current market rent, not trailing in-place rent, given the 29.8% spread. That gap held steady across Q1 2026, a sign it’s structural rather than a one-quarter anomaly.
Rollover timing matters too. Roughly 31% of leased industrial square footage will expire between Q3 2026 and Q2 2028, and Greater Los Angeles holds more than a third of that near-term volume, per CompStak’s 2026 Biannual Industrial Market Overview — Part Four. For portfolios concentrated in Los Angeles-area IOS and large-format assets, that expiration wall lines up directly with the segment’s widest mark-to-market opportunity nationally. Mega-format renewal premiums, which compressed to 49.2% in Q2 2025 before rebounding to 85.1% in Q1 2026, add a second data point worth tracking as those leases come due.
For further underwriting comparisons at the portfolio level, CompStak’s Exchange and comp database show how the largest institutional industrial landlords price rent and structure concessions relative to WALT and the broader market.
Get started with CompStak to access verified industrial comps by market and lease structure.
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