Miami Retail Market Showing Improvement

MIAMI-The Miami-Dade County retail market has seen “slight improvement” since 2000, according to a new report by Terranova Corp. The Fall 2003 Miami-Dade County Shopping Center Update tracks vacancy rates, rental rates, inventory and other shopping center statistics. The 204 centers surveyed are each more than 50,000 sf, and most are supermarket-anchored.

According to the report, rental rates are on the rise, while vacancy rates are dropping. The county’s retail vacancy rate is 6.93%, compared with 7.65% in 2000. In addition, the North Miami/Beaches submarket reported the lowest vacancy rate, at 3.85%, the highest rate, 12.32%, was in Hialeah.

The average asking net rental rate for retail space in the county was $19.85 per sf, an 8.64% improvement from the $18.27 per sf three years ago. The Homestead/Naranja submarket has the lowest asking net rental rate at $12.53 and the highest rate–$27.51–was seen in South Miami. The original submarkets all have shown increases in rental rates since 2000.