In a recently released ratings report, Moody's Investors Service attributed global trade as an increasingly important factor in the current economic health of the Miami-Dade market. The South Florida market also benefits from a diversification that is taking place among the state's key trading partners. Brazil, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Colombia, for instance, are Florida's top five export markets.

"Another reason that Florida has done so well is because it has a diverse set of trading partners," trade economist Sharmila Vishwasrao, an assistant professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, tells GlobeSt.com. "That insulates Florida from economic downtowns in the Latin American countries. Brazil, Argentina and Chile, for example, have made significant strides in opening their markets. That simply means there are other alternatives."

That diversification has an impact on everything from companies needing warehouse space to store goods earmarked for import or export, office space to support those deliveries and even residential products to house executives and workers who run those businesses, Gibson says.

"One fact that distinguishes Miami from other international cities with a Latin influence, like Los Angeles or Houston, is its historic Latin links," Gibson says. "Latin American executives tell me that Miami is probably the one true Latin city in all of the US."

Those influences are having a positive impact on Codina Group, one of the largest full-service real estate firms in Florida, Gibson says. The company's brokerage, management and development operations all are producing strong results.

"I expected to see a true fallout through our C&S Development division, which does nothing but build-to-suit projects in the range of 30,000 to 60,000 sf and is almost exclusively driven by small entrepreneurs that are linked to Latin America," Gibson says. "We're making are budget and may exceed it."

Convinced of the region's relative economic health, Gibson senses the South Florida commercial real estate market is poised for an even healthier rebound once the US markets regain steam.

"There is enough strength in the market," Gibson says. "We've seen that in the backfilling of some of our space. From a real estate perspective, we're even having a hard time getting ahead of ourselves."