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Palm Beach County: Commercial real estate market

» Office vacancies are down, with Boca Raton doing the best. New office construction is scant. Related Cos. is designing the 200,000-sq.-ft. Gateway Tower at CityPlace in West Palm Beach.

» The industrial market shows improvement. In Royal Palm Beach, American Tire Distributors’ 125,000-sq.-ft. warehouse is under construction to be leased from Exeter Property Group. The Charlotte, N.C., company will bring 30 jobs. In the same town, discount grocer Aldi has a 650,000-sq.-ft. distribution center under construction with completion scheduled for early 2014. Aldi, which has 20 area stores but is expanding, will employ 150 there initially. A future, second phase will bring the total to 800,000 square feet.

» In retail, the 500,000-sq.-ft. Palm Beach Outlets, a reuse of the site of the old Palm Beach Mall on I-95, is moving toward a February opening under developers New England Development and Eastern Real Estate.

Driving Down Vacancy Rates

Boca Corporate Center and Campus, IBM’s old Boca base now owned by Blackstone, will see Tyco Integrated Security move into 72,224 square feet on Jan. 1. Tyco, after it split from its sibling ADT, left ADT at 1501 Yamato Road, which they shared, to get its own digs. ADT will expand into the space at Yamato Road that Tyco left. Vacancy rates in Boca, mid-30% during the recession, have dropped into the low 20%. It was at 10% to 11% before the recession, says Jeff Kelly (above) of CBRE, who represents Boca Corporate Center. “We’ve got a lease out for 25,000 square feet. We’ve got another guy we’re working with for 20,000 we’re hoping to finalize. We’ve got internal expansions. And nothing’s being built.”

Palm Beach County - Commercial Market
  Vacancy Rate Avg. Asking Rent
Sector Quarter 2 2012 Quarter 2 2013 Quarter 2 2012 Quarter 2 2013
Industrial 9.52% 7.70 % $7.83 $6.33
Retail 8.41% 8.1% $18.12 $17.48
Office 26.82% 24.20% $17.14 $17.03
Source: CBRE