As steep tariffs on imports put ports in the Los Angeles area in turbulent and cold industrial property rentals, a rare building suddenly emerged in hot demand—the goods that could store goods without paying tariffs until the tariffs were lifted.

The main personnel of the bond warehouse must conduct background checks and the operator must establish a margin to protect potential government responsibility revenue. Customs bonds usually start at around $100,000.

Otherwise, once imported products hit U.S. soil, the current tariff rate on Chinese goods and the current 145% tariff rate, and in the next few weeks, it is expected that the comprehensive tariffs that apply to almost all countries will significantly reduce imports, otherwise the tariffs will be assessed.

But some importers who are still receiving goods are scrambling to rent space in bond buildings, where they hope to spend time eases tariff tensions.

“The demand for bond space has increased absolutely madly,” Rem said. “Everyone wants to bring their goods here before they want a resolution.”

He said the goal of importers is to keep their goods in these warehouses for a month or two until the trade conflict is resolved. Worst of all, importers expect to withdraw their goods from the bond’s warehouse at one time and pay tariffs in their case while keeping the rest of the import away from tax personnel.

Unfortunately, for importers, only a small fraction of the approximately 2 billion square feet of industrial properties in the region are bonded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Typically, bond warehouses are used by importers who bring them from one country to the goods before bundling them and shipping them to another country without having to pay tariffs. Importers can also make some limited assembly or other improvements to the goods in bond warehouses.

Rem said while many importers are canceling orders or sending goods back to China before unloading, others choose to bite the bullet and pay to bring orders to shore because they don’t want to have a tense and difficult relationship with huge national retailers by not giving them promised goods or trying to raise wholesale prices.

"Suppliers are eating a lot of these tariffs," he said. They believe that the tariff war will eventually relax, if the shelves are exposed in certain stores due to the high price of imports, and the suppliers want products nearby when the tariffs are lowered.

“Everyone wants to bring their goods here and store them in the Southern California market, because that will be resolved within the next 30 to 60 days.”

Responsibilities can be extended for up to five years and paid based on effective fees when evacuating from bond warehouses, a major attraction for businesses that try to avoid economically exhausted by current tariffs.

“Trump administration tariff changes are greatly reshaping import costs and supply chain strategies across industries,” French international transportation and logistics company Geodis said in a recent report on margin warehouses. “By utilities face significant challenges through cost management and cash flow optimization due to the majority of imports and basic tariffs in specific countries.”

Warehouse operators who want to bring buildings together to meet the surge in demand may not be able to complete the process soon.

Geodis said the application process could take several months. Property must meet certain physical requirements for entrance and exit, as well as fire safety and assurance requirements.

Geodis has over 50 million square feet of warehouses in the U.S., but none of them have made connections - the company is considering something that changes.

“The question is how long does it take if China’s tariffs are like all other reciprocity tariffs, and the demand for that,” he said. “Then, I bet that interest in bond warehouses will also drop dramatically.”

But, for the moment, “interest in bond warehouses soared compared to bond interest a year ago,” Riley said.

Another way to postpone customs payments is to import goods directly into federally approved foreign trade zones. Geodis said the key difference with bond warehouses is that tax prices are usually locked at rates that apply to the foreign trade zone when admitted to the hospital. However, these areas do store goods indefinitely.

As broad tariffs come into effect, overall demand for warehouses expected to transfer goods through Los Angeles County ports is expected to decline, which could hurt the economic vitality of one of the world's largest industrial real estate markets.

Leases of buildings that collect imports at least temporarily slow down at least temporarily when businesses wait to see if the tariffs are held at their announced interest rates or if they are easily carried out through negotiations.

Port officials predict trade declines in the coming days. “Arrivals will drop by 35% as essentially all goods from China are for major retailers and manufacturers, while goods coming out of Southeast Asia locations are much softer than normal locations,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port Commissioner, told the Port Commission last week.

One real estate economist said the impact of these tariffs is different from the supply shock, which suddenly changes the supply of goods or services, such as natural disasters, wars or disease outbreaks.

“Unlike the real supply shock, rising tariffs don’t cause businesses to scramble to acquire additional inventory,” economist Shawn Moura
Real estate trading group Naiop said in a report.

“Inventory levels are already higher than importers seeking a buffer against tariffs and are likely to lower the trend. If companies have not yet fully determined where to get new supply when current inventory is exhausted, the recent shortages could lead to higher prices due to tariffs.

“If consumers are rushing to buy goods before prices fully adapt to new tariffs, the shortage may be earlier than expected,” Mulla said. “The disruption of supply chains could also lead to recent shortages and delays in delivery of building materials.”