Ones To Watch: Innovators In Commercial Real Estate: Brian Whitmer, Doors & Spaces Industrial

Industry Outlook:
The biggest opportunity lies in institutionalizing small-bay industrial (SBI), an essential, highly fragmented sector we view as the ‘apartments of industrial.’ While large-scale logistics dominated past cycles, displaced small-to-medium enterprises and local entrepreneurs are driving massive demand for flexible, small-footprint space. I’m excited by the trend toward applying institutional-grade development, capital markets precision and modernized operations to this universal asset class, transforming historically overlooked properties into high-performing, resilient investment platforms.

Innovation in Action:
Innovation for us is about bridging ground-up development insights with existing asset acquisitions. By deploying a proprietary, technology-driven platform, we streamline asset management, leasing and due diligence across multi-tenant portfolios. Through modern, purpose-built construction standards applied to legacy SBI stock, we eliminate operational bottlenecks for tenants. This dual perspective allows us to cut through market noise, optimize bay functionality and maximize long-term portfolio performance.