The COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in commercial real estate markets across the world, forcing companies to reevaluate their needs amid economic uncertainty. The fallout continues to this day.
Even so, Florida's recovering commercial real estate market seems to be bucking national trends, says Ryan Nee, executive managing director and divisional chief revenue officer for Marcus & Millichap's Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The California-based commercial real estate investment brokerage firm has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. Within Florida, it completed more than 500 investment sales transactions from September 2024 to September 2025, amounting to more than $3.5 billion in volume.
Nee, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, spoke with Florida Trend about the state's evolving commercial real estate market.
FLORIDA TREND: What Florida cities or regions are hotspots for commercial real estate?
Nee: There are three main areas where we're seeing tremendous growth and investment: Miami, Palm Beach County and Tampa. In Miami and Palm Beach County, there was tremendous net financial migration, meaning the people coming in had more wealth than the people leaving. The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County reported that more than 140 companies relocated to the metro over the past five years, including Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Vanderbilt University. And then Tampa and Miami have had an explosion of young professionals choosing to start their careers there, so you see a ton of economic activity and investment.
FT: What cities or regions are struggling to fill doors?
Nee: If there's any market where maybe there's slower absorption, or the engines aren't running as fast, it would be Jacksonville. It's a top-three market in multifamily vacancies, and it's a little slower on industrial and office occupancies. But, relatively speaking, Jacksonville is still doing extremely well. It has 12.4% year-over-year population growth. Let's say it's the worst of the best in Florida. ... Any time you have a boom with a lot of the development that's happened over the past three to five years, it takes time for that extra supply to absorb in the marketplace. My bet would be that, in this high market as population growth continues to outpace the nation and that supply gets absorbed, you'll start to see Jacksonville back on the top of the list in terms of low vacancy and high occupancy.
FT: What trends are you seeing in the new commercial builds?
Nee: Office would be the sector to watch over the next couple of years. I think there's going to be a lot of activity. Going back a couple years, obviously COVID-19 happens, and everybody works remotely. What you've seen over the past 12 months is a resurgence in office investment. But the story is the haves and the have-nots, where the haves are getting all the tenants that want to be in-office, and then the rest of the office market is going through a real evaluation. For companies that want to be in-office, you're actually seeing record-setting lease rates for Class A office space with the right amenities with the right floor space in the right locations. I think you'll see a lot of old Class B and C offices taken out of the stock and redeveloped into something else. — By Brittney J. Miller