Small bay industrial real estate investing, explained by an active operator, not a guru. I’m Will Skillman, CEO of Trowbridge Development, buying, developing, and leasing small bay industrial and flex properties.
This channel breaks down real deal numbers: acquisitions, value-add repositioning, ground-up development, cap rates, market rents, and strategies behind small bay flex, storage-to-flex conversions, and multi-tenant industrial. No theory or recycled advice—just real underwriting, timelines, and lessons from completed deals.
New videos, including calls from Small Bay Basecamp, a free community of small bay industrial investors, developers, and operators sharing insights.
Topics include small bay industrial investing, flex space development, industrial acquisitions, value-add real estate, underwriting, market rents, zoning, site selection, leasing strategy, development finance, and commercial real estate investing.
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Will Skillman
Want to learn alongside active small bay developers and investors? Join Small Bay Basecamp, free, live calls every Friday: www.skool.com/small-bay-basecamp/about
This week's call was a big one. Cody Payne of Flex Parks USA broke down how to spot an oversaturated market before you build into it, rising vacancy paired with flat or falling rents, too many look-alike projects, and rent concessions creeping back in.
He also walked through his site-underwriting checklist: spending per capita, rental rate trends, and true on-market vacancy timelines, plus a real example where a smaller, more flexible unit mix (1,250 SF increments instead of the market's standard 1,850 SF) leased 35 units in 4.5 months at a $3/SF premium over the competition.
Real numbers, real frameworks, no fluff.
New video is up: https://youtu.be/veRQD-GXHv4
2 months ago |[YT] | 1
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Will Skillman
Pick the wrong shaped parcel and you can lose a huge chunk of net rentable square footage before you ever touch a shovel.
This week's Basecamp call, Curtis Koldeway of Hauser Architects, who's actively designing six flex projects right now, walked us through how to actually lay out a small bay site. Parcel shape, fire access, drive aisle widths, and the "walls and dirt" costs that quietly kill a project's budget.
He even built a live site plan tool that lets you sketch a parcel and see what fits. Genuinely one of the more useful sessions we've done.
New video is up 👇
https://youtu.be/o5nbSy2Jjbo?si=Q17JH...
#SmallBayIndustrial #RealEstateInvesting #SmallBayFlex
2 months ago |[YT] | 0
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Will Skillman
How to Market and Lease Up Small Bay Flex Properties Fast
A property with no demand isn't always a marketing problem, sometimes it's a feasibility problem nobody caught before the deal closed.
I sat down with Jessica Johnson of The Storage Group on how to actually lease up small bay flex, real ad spend benchmarks by property size, why Google and Facebook still beat TikTok for this tenant base, and the tenant referral tactics that quietly outperform paid ads.
New video is up 👇
https://youtu.be/BYDLCyuXI_U
#SmallBayIndustrial #SmallBayFlex #RealEstateInvesting
2 months ago |[YT] | 0
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Will Skillman
The risk profiles of value-add and ground-up development in Small BAy Industrial are vastly different. Value-add may have $5,000-$10,000 at risk vs. $100,000+ out of pocket for a development before you break ground.
This video breaks down why the risk profile, timeline, and returns still favor value-add, even though the industry needs more ground-up development.
Watch 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYmn6...
2 months ago |[YT] | 0
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Will Skillman
Miss market rent by $1-2/SF in small bay industrial and it'll wreck your debt service coverage and yield-on-cost. And there's no deep CoStar comp set to catch it.
On our weekly Small Bay Basecamp call, Michael Tran of Flex Parks USA talks about how to actually underwrite rents with confidence. His take: the metrics that work for big-box industrial (highway access, port proximity) mislead you here. Small bay tenants are local HVAC guys, electricians, and trades, so homeownership rates and business formation drive demand, not interstate access.
He also walked through the manual comp-verification process his team runs when public data isn't enough.
New video is up 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI5Ye...
#SmallBayIndustrial #SmallBayFlex
2 months ago |[YT] | 0
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Will Skillman
Buy it or build it?
Thaddeus Campbell and I got into the real math on this one, ground-up development vs. value-add acquisition for small bay flex. Not theory, actual numbers.
I walked through three deals we closed this year at $42-$66/SF, with the real capex and timeline to refi on each. Thaddeus broke down why site plan approval matters more than your building permit, and what it actually costs to get a ground-up flex deal to shovel-ready.
If you're trying to figure out which lane fits your capital and risk tolerance, this one gives you a real framework.
New video is up 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4edt7...
#SmallBayIndustrial #SmallBayFlex
2 months ago |[YT] | 0
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Will Skillman
What does "flex" actually mean in industrial real estate, and where's the real opportunity hiding in it?
This week's Small Bay Basecamp call breaks down how to read a flex market: vacancy, absorption, new supply, rent and cap rate rules of thumb for small bay vs. large industrial, and the mistakes that quietly kill returns (wrong use, over-improving, bad parking, zoning mismatches).
If you're building, buying, or expanding into small bay flex, this one's a practical framework you can actually use.
New video is up 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs36Y...
#SmallBayIndustrial #SmallBayFlex
2 months ago |[YT] | 0
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