“My guess is it is getting too exciting and we are building too much industrial space,” Zell said last week in a Bloomberg Television interview from the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

E-commerce is reconfiguring supply chains and shaping the fortunes of U.S. industrial landlords, especially near larger cities, where online shopping is most popular. Real estate investment trusts that lease out space at warehouses and logistics centers have been outperforming those that focus on malls, rental apartments or office buildings.

Zell, chairman and founder of Chicago-based Equity Group Investments, made his comments on the day after Prologis Inc., the world’s largest warehouse owner, agreed to acquire rival DCT Industrial Trust Inc. for $8.4bn in stock and assumed debt.

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