Tampa land outlook brightens

TAMPA — Several indicators show that the market for commercial land in Tampa Bay is brightening, according to Bruce Erhardt, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield's land brokerage services in Tampa.

For the first time in four years, the market for multifamily land is active again, says Erhardt in a new report. The highest demand is for suburban and infill townhouse projects. In the industrial land market, developers are looking for sites again, a trend not seen since 2008.

Erhardt predicts that spec development of industrial properties will begin again this year, after a lengthy pause because of the recession and credit crisis, and a subsequent drop in demand. “Several large users are looking for sites,” he says in the report.

“It feels to me like we are in 1993, coming out of the savings and loan-RTC era,” Erhardt says. Fundamentals are recovering across property types, and loan funds have been freed up for Class A and Class B commercial projects.
Hotel development is also getting under way this year, Erhardt adds. And although the office market in general has stalled, the medical office segment remains lively, with large office users looking for space.

As for the retail market, single tenant, necessity retail and investors, such as supermarkets, are driving local development, except for possible Bass Pro Shops and Chelsea Outlet Mall deals in Brandon and Wesley Chapel, says Erhardt.