- Sunshine state continues to shine as close to 3500 retailers gathered in Kissimmee this year for the Florida conference, up roughly 10% over last year.
- A number of new tenants were at the show, with more non-credit tenants looking for space, a sign showing that business lending has improved down the spectrum of credit. In previous years, tenant activity was limited to mostly credit tenants such as CVS/WAG/McD's/Chase/TD Bank, etc. Now you are seeing franchisees, new concepts, and non-credit operators actively looking for sites.
- Hiring has moved up slowly for firms. Some groups have built enough of a pipeline of business to require additional staff, however decision makers are very consciously avoiding a "too much, too soon" scenario within their businesses.
- As a state and industry, we are clearly improving, but not without concern of where the recovery will lead us. Macroeconomic issues create hesitation, ultimately leading everyone to operate with a cautiously optimistic outlook.
- New construction is one of the most discussed topics as any new ground up development was rare.
- Planning for new locations is in full swing and will most likely peak, in deliveries, in 2015. New tenants are starting to show interest in building new locations and are focusing on Florida for their expansion.
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Jonathan Hipp
Jonathan Hipp began his career in real estate over 25 years ago. In his early years as a broker, he ventured into the net lease industry and quickly began leading the US net lease market, closing over $3 billion in transactions. In 2005, Jon founded Calkain Companies, a company focused solely on net lease investment services. As President and CEO, he has been instrumental in building the firm into one of the leading Net Lease real estate companies, transacting over $12 billion of net lease deal volume over the past 13 years. He has expanded Calkain’s services to include brokerage, advisory, asset management, capital markets, and industry research. He has become a well-known resource, panelist, and speaker at various Net Lease and Industry conferences and is a regular contributor to GlobeSt.com on real estate trends. In June 2015, Jon’s passion for the real estate business was again recognized as he was nominated for the Top Real Estate Player in the DC area by SmartCEO magazine.
