- Florida's retail real estate sector continues to see growth as over 3500 retailers gathered in Kissimmee this year for the 2014 ICSC Florida Conference, The number of attendees was up from last year, and energy levels were very high.
- The 'New Deal Making Times' from 10:30am – 5:30pm on the main day was a great addition to the conference. The extra hours in the exhibit hall gave attendees more time to network, exhibit and make deals. Continuous activity around the developer's exhibits looked very encouraging.
- Population growth, tourism and strong consumer spending have helped to propel demand for retail space throughput the whole state. These three factors combine to make investment in retail real estate very inviting now and in the near future. Most of the demand for property is in South Florida, but there is also a great demand in the Tampa, Orlando and smaller city markets.
- Business is busy for everyone and there is a large inventory of single tenant deliveries planned for 4Q14 and 1Q15. Buy and hold property owners are considering peeling off out-parcels due to aggressive cap rates. Investors are hot for restaurants right now, including franchisee properties.
- Overall, people seemed confident of the economies growing strength and were eager to participate at the conference. The future of the Florida retail real estate market looks bright. The only worrying factor in the retail real estate sector is the eventual increase of interest rates.
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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.
