South Florida Commercial Real Estate Top Professionals

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Interested in knowing how South Florida’s commercial real estate market is turning?

Are you wondering if the market is changing for the better or for the worse?

Listed below are market insights from leaders in the commercial real estate industry throughout South Florida to include: Broward County, Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade County.  

Broward County Commercial Real Estate Professionals

Tom O’Loughlin, SIOR, CCIM
Vice President
CBRE | Brokerage Services 

“The owner-user market for industrial buildings across Broward County is extremely active with numerous groups trying to source buildings. The main issue is a lack of quality buildings currently listed on the market for sale. This low inventory is a result of fewer bank owned assets in play and owners delaying listing their properties hoping to take advantage of the pricing rebound. We feel this demand will continue as long as third party financing remains aggressive and these properties can be purchased below replacement cost.”

 Specialty: Industrial

 

Caroline Fleischer
Associate Associate
Cushman & Wakefield

3  

“The commercial real estate market is slowly and steadily increasing its activity but most of the activity seems to be lateral. The addition of Becker Poliakoff’s tenancy of 45,000 square feet into the CBD district in Fort Lauderdale has increased the absorption rate but CBD is still experiencing vacancy rates hovering 19%.  Southwest Broward is seeing decent activity but, for Broward County overall, I don’t believe there will be a true resurgence of activity until 1st Q 2015.  Tech and bio-tech firms as well as medical billing/processing companies will be some of the more dominant players in the market moving forward.”

 Specialty: Office Tenant Representation

 

Michael Rauch
Managing Partner
CRE Florida Partners

3

“A recovering residential market continues to be a leading indicator of a modest recovery in commercial real estate in South Florida. However, Broward County continues to tread water in office leasing and sales. Although some office properties are leasing and trading, rates and values remain lethargic due primarily to a slow rebuilding of local businesses, while high average vacancies have resulted in low capitalized values. Industrial leasing has been brisk in Broward and seems to be leading the recovery fueled mainly by a Dade County industrial market recovery. While there is certainly a lot of liquidity in the market investors remain cautious and buy only when underwriting fundamentals are perfectly suited to their conservative criteria. Historically low costs of capital and an increasing investment appetite will slowly fuel a Broward County investment recovery.”

Specialty:  Industrial

 

Miami- Dade County Commercial Real Estate Professionals

Marty Busekrus
Director
HFF

  “The last few weeks or so have been quite interesting in the capital markets.  About a month ago the 10 year treasury rate was hovering around 1.65%.  As of June 12th, the rate had climbed 55 basis points to over 2.2%.  This sharp rise has resulted in the capital markets constraining a bit and spreads for all types of mortgages widening including the swap markets.  Although capital is still chasing yields for core industrial deals throughout the Southeast, we think cap rates will rise 25-50 basis points in the second half of the year due to the capital markets.”

Specialty: Industrial Investment Sales, Southeastern U.S.

Deme Megras
Regional Managing Partner
Franklin Street

1  

“A lot of people are watching interest rates as they trend upward because when the cost of borrowing goes up, real estate investment tends to slow down.  But I’m not too worried about the impact because the spread between cap rates, treasury rates and commensurate mortgage rates have widened beyond the traditional spread of between 150-250 basis points.  Slightly higher interest rates will not proportionately raise cap rates, but rather bring spreads back to historically-normal levels.”

Specialty: Multifamily Investment Sales

 

Mort Fetterolf
Director of Industrial Services
Colliers International South Florida

2

 South Florida’s industrial market continues to be one of the tightest in the nation. Tenants in the 20,000-40,000 SF compete fiercely for new 30′ clear product currently while Developers race to bring new product online. Look for continued low vacancy of existing product and stable rental rates in the next 6 months.”

Specialty: Industrial

Palm Beach County Commercial Real Estate Professionals

Rick Miller, SIOR
First Vice President
CBRE | Brokerage Services

5

 “While we experienced a slight drop off at the end of the first quarter, our team is now experiencing an increase in activity from Tenants across all industry sectors. The overall office market is slowly improving as a whole but most experts still consider it a “Tenants Market”.  However with the increased optimism, Landlords are digging in their heels a bit more during negotiations.  With the improvements in home sales, manufacturing and in the job market, we are looking for a steady uptick in activity throughout South Florida. Miami-Dade has always been the lead indicator for us in South Florida and with the positive news coming from our neighbors to the south, we are looking for continued momentum throughout 2013.”

Specialty: Office

Gary Broidis
President
Atlantic Commercial Group

6

“Since the start of 2013, we are continuing to see a moderate increase in leasing in both the retail and office sectors in South Florida.  As the economy takes little albeit steady steps forward and the jobs reports improve, the retail consumers are feeling more positive and the employers are feeling more secure with the stabilization and/or growth of their business.  All of this, in turn, creates more retail sales and additional demand for office space.”

 

Specialty: Office & Retail

Michael Erickson
Senior Vice President
CBRE | Brokerage Services

7

“In general terms, the market appears to be continuing its push toward the so called recovery. Perspective is somewhat tied to whether your glass is “half full” or “half empty”. On one hand there is lots of talk about increased leasing and sales activity, deals being done, interest rates staying low, unemployment rates dropping, and other positive factors; on the other, the Palm Beach County office market is statistically in the same place it was 5 years ago. I am personally seeing more expansion of the existing tenant base which is a very positive sign and bodes well for vacancy rates to finally start decreasing, leading to stabilized rental rates and a lessening of the extraordinary lease concessions that have been available in recent years.”

Specialty: Office

 

We’d like to hear your thoughts!  

What is your opinion of South Florida’s commercial real estate market?