South Florida’s commercial real estate boom is in question: Is the commercial real estate boom expected to continue? The commercial real estate market has been having a significant year. According to a report in WLRN Public Radio and Television, last year South Florida experienced over a dozen commercial real estate deals of more than $100 million dollars.
The WLRN report also indicated that “billions of dollars of office buildings, condo buildings, shopping malls and warehouses were bought and sold” throughout the South Florida region.
The Sunshine Economy spoke with three veteran industry experts in commercial real estate. John Kanas, CEO, Bank United, Carlos Russo, president of the condominium division of The Related Group, TIAA-CREF Senior Director Mike Fisk all agree that “there is no bubble” in South Florida’s commercial real estate market in 2016.
“There’s a lot written about the South Florida market slowing down. We have not seen any anecdotal evidence of that,” the experts commented. “There’s no evidence finding its way to us that would indicate that. What we’ve seen is that other sections of Florida are catching on. We’re doing very well in Tampa and Orlando and more recently established a footprint in Jacksonville,” the experts said.
The technology revolution that has been occurring in relation to Wall Street has also been considered by the experts as one of the biggest impacts. “All of the financial institutions and people who are related to the financial services business don’t need to be sitting at a desk down at Wall Street anymore,” the experts said.
As a result, more people are seeking out different locations to do business in the area of commercial real estate. “We’re starting to see financial companies spreading their wings in South Florida like we’ve never seen before,” the experts commented. “We see that in stocks and we see that in real estate; we see that other assets. So we’re watchful. But what’s happening this time is there are a lot of a long-term bells that are already ringing.”
Overall, the Fed has confidence in the American economy. South Florida’s economy is tied to Latin America where currently the Brazilian economy is shrinking by 4.5 percent. The economic distress is an internal factor. According to the Sunshine Economy, The Miami Customs District, which includes Port Miami, Miami International Airport and Port Everglades, continues to shrink in 2015 because of the shrinkage of demand from Latin America.
