Sun begins to shine on commercial real estate

The Gulf Coast had a positive shout out in a recent BB&T Corp. earnings conference call.

Executives with the $174 billion asset bank, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., have previously indicated they think Florida is in rebound mode. BB&T Chairman, CEO and President Kelly King expanded on those beliefs in response to a question from an analyst about how he views the state of Florida's commercial real estate market.

“I'd say, generally, in the aggregate, the real estate market in Florida is stabilized and improving,” King says. “For example, if you go to the Gulf Coast, clearly, prices have firmed up and are beginning to go up. Activity is substantially up.”

Some local commercial real estate brokers would likely contest that assessment. Still, King remains steadfast.

Adds King: “If you go to Miami where, as you recall, there was a huge glut, something like 28,000 condo units on the market. There's been a major surge of Latin America investors coming in, and the latest report I saw was that there's a — it's a 90%-93% occupancy. So all of that is because they turned the condos into rental properties. So there are three projects in Miami on — getting ready to come out of the ground. So I'm sure you could probably find some spots of Florida that still have some issues. But overall, I'd call it stabilized to improving.”