There are many types of industrial buildings and if you are considering investment in an industrial building, you should know the various types with industrial building examples. Here is a brief description of the seven different types of industrial buildings:
1: Heavy industrial buildings
These types of industrial buildings are large in size and used by companies that manufacture steel, cement or things like automobiles. These types of industrial building facilities usually have large store houses for keeping raw material and finished goods. There can be huge blast furnaces inside these types of industrial buildings set up. There can also be pressurized air and water lines, high capacity exhaust systems, cranes and storage tanks. These type of industrial buildings are built to suit and rarely find alternative usage. Industrial building examples include a manufacturing facility for steel. However, as it is made to suit, this industrial building cannot be used for making cement or anything else.
2: Warehouses
Types of industrial buildings that are used for storing goods on behalf of other companies are called warehouses. These types of industrial buildings are also known as godowns. So, these type of industrial building are of great use to manufacturers, people involved in wholesale business, exporters, importers, people involved in business of transports etc. Although warehouses can be of different sizes, they are usually large and are located outside city limits. They can have more than one storey and can have loading docks, huge parking lots of big trucks. It is important to know that since warehouses deal with lot of goods, their location is also planned in such a way that goods can be loaded and unloaded directly from the ports, the railways stations or the airports using cranes. The goods in the warehouses include raw and packed materials across sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, food and beverages etc. They can also have a small office set up inside the premises.
3: Telecom centres or data hosting centres
These facilities have large servers and computers and are very specialized types of industrial buildings wherein there are large power lines capable of powering the computers. These are located in proximity to large communication trunk lines. A data centre hosts computer systems and its related components like telecommunications and data storage. These types of commercial buildings which accommodate telecommunication and data centres are increasingly growing in the country because of the increasing dependence on technology.
4: Cold storage buildings
These commercial building types are especially built to store large amounts of food products and keep them under refrigerated conditions for long periods. These commercial building types are located mostly along state and national highways and in places where there is good supply of electricity. Industrial building example of a cold storage is shown below.
5: Light manufacturing buildings
These types of industrial buildings can be used in processing food items or assembly of light machinery like fans, water pumps, gadgets, etc. These are generally small in size as compared to types of industrial buildings that are heavy and do not have blast furnace, high capacity exhaust systems etc. These commercial building types can sometimes find alternative uses like a unit making water pumps can be converted in to assembly unit for gadget by making changes in the some of the installed machinery.
6: Research and development set up
Research and development (R&D) forms an integral part of many businesses and they like to set up their own R&D centres which cater to their specific requirements. A lot of life sciences companies have their R&D centres which are usually owned by them. These centres are generally not in the centre of the city. Companies can house their scientists and other staff in these types of commercial buildings and hence there are residential elements in this kind of a set up. There can also be elements of office buildings in a R&D centre. Sometimes these centres run on rented commercial building types also but the lease period is usually long.
7: Flex buildings
This is the newest addition to the category of types of commercial building/ industrial buildings example and is a result of the evolving needs of modern times. These flex commercial building types have more than one usage and can accommodate a R&D facility, an office set up, light manufacturing and even showroom spaces. They are flexible in nature and some of the uses can be changed by making simple modifications.
