Every so often, The Real Finds Podcast brings on a guest who reframes the way we look at a corner of commercial real estate. This week, that guest was Andrew Wiesemann, an operator who went from buying multifamily in Chicago to becoming one of the most respected voices in industrial outdoor storage (IOS).
Our conversation goes deep into why IOS is exploding, why supply is disappearing in real time, and why many cities still struggle to understand a land use category that quietly powers everything from logistics to data centers.
But more importantly, Andrew walks listeners through how to evaluate IOS the right way, not through hype, not through Twitter threads, but through zoning, user operations, long-term functionality, and market structure.
This episode is a blueprint for anyone curious about the asset class, whether you’re an investor trying to enter the IOS market, a landlord sitting on a yard you don’t fully understand, or a municipal leader wondering why your “ugly” sites are suddenly getting calls from major national operators.
Here are the biggest takeaways from our conversation.
One of the most interesting parts of this episode is Andrew’s path. He didn’t come up through industrial brokerage. He started on the principal side, buying multifamily in Chicago for a family office. But after years of management-intensive operations, shifting taxes, and the grind of Cook County ownership, he looked for something simpler, something more predictable.
That led him to single-tenant industrial across Wisconsin and Indiana — and eventually to a 10-acre site in Lansing, Michigan where he discovered something most industrial investors overlook:
The tenants didn’t care about the building. They cared about the yard.
Outdoor storage wasn’t an accessory; it was the core of their operations. Once Andrew saw that pattern, he realized IOS had the three traits every investor dreams of:
His experience on the principal side is why this episode resonates: Andrew approaches IOS not like a broker chasing comps but like an owner trying to understand long-term durability and operational usefulness.
Andrew breaks down IOS with a clarity that few operators have, starting with the biggest reason IOS rents are rising:
Heavy industrial zoning is typically the only category that allows outdoor storage by right. But during the 2000s big-box boom, developers bought up heavy industrial land nationwide and turned it into large-format distribution buildings.
That meant:
So today, IOS is stuck in a paradox: users need it more than ever, but cities no longer allow it to be built.
Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, the Carolinas, every region has older operators sitting on highly functional IOS sites:
Their kids aren’t taking over and many of these families are sitting on assets that are more valuable as land than business operations. Andrew sees it everywhere. You probably see it too if you’re in the field every day.
IOS isn’t just truck parking. In fact, trucking only represents 10–15% of IOS users.
The big categories today:
Every category above is growing, not shrinking. Every category requires outdoor storage. Municipalities often don’t like these uses, but their economies depend on them.
Andrew makes a key point for investors: A “nice” site isn’t Class A — a functional site is.
What users truly care about:
Gravel does not define a Class C property. Bad truck flow does.
Right now, IOS trades at a spread over traditional industrial space because many lenders and investors simply don’t understand it. But data is growing. Portfolios are trading. REITs are forming. Institutional capital is normalizing around the asset class.
Andrew’s take: the spread will tighten faster than most expect.
One of my favorite parts of the episode is how tactical Andrew gets about due diligence. He shares a straightforward three-step filter that every IOS investor should use before writing an LOI:
He also flags a forward-looking risk: development at the edges of major metros. As investors try to build new IOS on the outskirts to capture spillover demand, they risk overestimating rent potential in markets with no historical comps. The next phase of IOS will include both opportunity and overreach.
Andrew follows a simple rule: follow the highways, follow the ports, follow the infrastructure.
That’s why IOS thrives in:
Infrastructure is destiny in IOS. If the region is a freight hub, an energy hub, a port hub, or a data center hub, IOS will follow.
In the final section of our conversation, Andrew shared something he wishes he had learned earlier:
Pick one thing and go all-in.
He became an expert not by reading theory, but by spending years learning how IOS users actually operate, what equipment they store, how they move trucks, what fencing they need, how they view rent relative to gross revenue.
That knowledge is why investors trust him today. And it’s exactly why this episode is worth a listen.
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