Downtown Miami

MIAMI—The numbers don't lie. After disaster predictions that Miami's office market would take 10 years to recover from overbuilding, there's actually pent up demand for class A office space. GlobeSt.com caught up with Camilo Lopez, CEO & Managing Partner at TSG, to get some insights in this exclusive interview.

“The beginning of 2018 is marked with pent-up demand for quality class A office space, with several new developments scheduled for delivery in the coming months,” Lopez tells GlobeSt.com. He points to Cushman & Wakefield's Market Beat Q4 2017 office report, which shows there is no shortage of momentum on a local level.

According to CushWake, the unemployment rate is on a downward trend at 4.5% and the overall vacancy rate at 12.1%. In particular, Miami's submarket of Coral Gables is poised for growth, reporting a vacancy rate of just 9.6% and noting 132,381 square-feet under construction.

“Recent tax reform will also be a catalyst for increased activity in commercial real estate and office space,” Lopez says. “The reduced corporate tax rate will likely further incentivize multinationals to expand in South Florida, with the recent completion of the Port of Miami and proximity to Latin America, as well as interested foreigners seeking secure and stable investments in the US.”

Tere Blanca, founder and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, expects local economic fundamentals to remain strong and drive the success of the Miami office market in 2018. “Key industries demonstrating significant employment growth include professional, financial, and legal services, as well as evolving industries such as technology and media, at a rate of 2.5% locally, which is double that of the 1.2% national growth rate,” Blanca tells GlobeSt.com. “These developments translate into 62,000 new jobs within those sectors during the past two years.”

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