I love it when we get a scoop, especially when it’s about commercial real estate. And we definitely got the scoop on Thursday when Tim Becker, director of the Kelley A. Bergstrom Center For Real Estate Studies at the University of Florida, stopped by for a chat.
Becker gave us first crack at releasing the most recent findings from the Center’s current study of the Emerging Trends in Florida Real Estate. The report will be posted today online at realestate.ufl.edu.
The commercial real estate market has been on fire in South Florida, and it seems the heat has started to spread to the rest of the state, Becker said. The overall market has begun to pick up in Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville – and, it turns out, in Gainesville.
Driven in part by the University of Florida, Becker said, Gainesville has a number of projects ongoing and enjoys a comparatively low unemployment rate.
I’ve always thought that technology and entrepreneurship provide the common thread between the growth in the Miami and Gainesville markets, and Becker said this applies to the rest of Florida, too. In Orlando’s UCF area, for instance, we see the Lake Nona Medical City in addition to many other business incubators.
Tampa is also recovering quickly, Becker said, with unemployment down to about 7 percent and lots of investment under way. The downtown office market is becoming more active, he said.
The big take-away from the new report, Becker said, can be summed up in one word: optimism.
“The optimism continues for the state as far as real estate goes. That’s based on the fact the economy is improving,” he said. “Tourism is booming, and that’s benefiting Orlando and Miami, probably disproportionately to the rest of the state.
“Optimism continues to grow, and it will continue to grow as long as the government doesn’t do anything to screw it up.”
Click here to listen to the full interview with Tim Becker of the Kelley A. Bergstrom Center For Real Estate Studies at the University of Florida.
You can follow the Kelley A. Bergstrom Center For Real Estate Studies online at realestate.ufl.edu, on Twitter at @bergstromcenter, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BergstromCenter.
