Data Centers Lead in REIT Employment

EY earlier this month released a 27-page report that finds the total economic contribution of U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) and related businesses in 2019 was an estimated 2.6 million full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs that generated $173.3 billion of labor income. That footprint consists of the direct operations of REITs and related businesses in the U.S., “as well as the induced or indirect flows from dividend and interest payments by REITs and REIT property improvement and construction investments,” said the report, prepared at the behest of Nareit. Among the findings, REITs invested $85 billion in new construction and routine capital expenditures to maintain existing property. They also paid $21 billion in property taxes.

The table above shows the top industry sectors for 2019. REIT employment impact by state follows population to a large extent, with some exceptions. We took it a step further by introducing the latest state population figures and determining per-capita REIT employment impact: Those rankings are listed below.— Adam Bruns and Daniel Boyer

Economic Contribution of REITs by State, 2019

The latest North American Data Center Trends Report from CBRE, released earlier this month, showed 329.6 MW of net absorption in 2020 across the seven primary U.S. data center markets. While down 11% from the peak in 2019, said CBRE, “2020 absorption was still higher than any other year on record. Meanwhile, vacancy fell to just 8.5% despite an 11% growth in new supply.”

“With data usage growing at an explosive rate, we expect data center demand to increase across both primary and secondary markets in 2021,” said Pat Lynch, senior managing director, Data Center Solutions, CBRE. In addition to the top 10 most active markets listed below, CBRE reported significant construction pipelines in such markets as Montreal (57 MW), Silicon Valley (50.1 MW), Central Washington (43.7 MW), Hillsboro, Oregon (40.5 MW), and Chicago (33.7 MW). 

Top 10 Most Active Markets

The county board of supervisors in Loudoun County, the northern Virginia county that is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, recently passed a resolution to declare March 24 (yesterday) as International Data Center Day in Loudoun County. Among the events planned were the presentation of 1,000 Data Center Day challenge coins in recognition of the critical services provided by data center workers during the COVID-19 lockdown; and the debut of a podcast series “It’s called a DAY-TUH Center” with Buddy Rizer, which takes an in-depth look at the history, impact and future of the industry in Loudoun. “For those in tech industries, Ashburn is on-par with major cities like New York, London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong for global economic impact,” said Rizer. Even though the buildings are easily seen, we want to convey to our community that the full impact of the industry goes beyond the buildings. That includes the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue, the thousands of jobs for Loudoun residents, and a great deal of community service performed by those in the industry.”

After having to postpone last year’s edition, the famous Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) announced earlier this month it’s back on for 2021. The week-long ride — RAGBRAI XLVIII — will take place July 25-31, beginning in the ice cream capital of Le Mars out west and ending with a dip in the Mississippi in Clinton, Iowa, which took home the No. 1 per-capita ranking this year in Site Selection’s annual analysis of the Mississippi River Corridor. This photo from the 2019 ride was among several provided to Site Selection by the RAGBRAI team at The Des Moines Register last year for our Iowa Spotlight, which followed the planned route even though no cyclists ended up doing so. Ride on!