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Sector Portrait
Commercial Real Estate in Florida: What's HOT and What's NOT
Fort Myers, Naples/Southwest Florida
On the rebound: The collapse of the housing market has hit this area hard. Southwest Florida is emerging from the downturn, but has a long way to go. Because property values have yet to stabilize, some commercial real estate sectors are weak, but the market has bottomed out, particularly in Naples. In north Naples, large tract builders are getting ready to start construction. "As housing construction comes back, that will fuel commercial real estate," says Larry Foster, manager broker with CB Richard Ellis in Fort Myers-Naples. In the multifamily sector, Lloyd Berger, president of Berger Commercial Realty of Fort Lauderdale, handled the sale of several distressed apartment buildings in Fort Myers in the last year and saw a big appetite from buyers. "This sector is hot in every market around the state."
Borders (now vacant), Fort Myers [Photo: Borders] |
Tampa/Tampa Bay
Verandahs at Brighton Bay, St. Petersburg [Photo: Richard Given, CBRE] Developers are building nearly 2,800 apartment units in the Tampa Bay area. |
Still struggling: Two tenants of more than 100,000 square feet signed leases in the second quarter, giving the industrial market a boost. But there is still an abundance of warehouse space available for the typical users of an average 15,000 square feet, says Nancy Phaneuf, president of Nancy Phaneuf Commercial Realty and Development in Tampa. "Rents haven't tightened up enough for anyone to think about new construction. I think that will take at least another year." Phaneuf says landlords also are providing incentives and reducing rents to keep their existing industrial users. "There's not a huge demand for space that can't be accommodated with the inventory we have."