Miami-Dade Industrial Spec Development Way Down in Q3

MIAMI-A recently released report shows that speculative construction completions in the Miami-Dade industrial market were way down in the third quarter, compared with the same quarter a year ago. Those completions dropped 73.5%, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s third-quarter industrial report. The report says that developers continue to hold off on projects, pointing out that the third quarter had only 424,589 sf of speculative construction completions, a huge drop from the 1.6 million sf in the comparable period in 2001.

Edward Easton, chairman of the Miami, FL-based Easton Group, is not surprised. “The reason is that lenders don’t want to do any speculative development,” Easton tells GlobeSt.com. For this to change, he says, “Net absorption will have to get up again, where it was three or four years ago.” The Easton Group owns and brokers industrial properties, primarily in South Florida.

Spec development is going to go down as long as the economy is weak, says Easton. “As the economy picks up and net absorption picks up, we will see rates increase and speculative development increase,” he says. Year-to-date net absorption was 586,896 sf.