Commercial Real Estate Market Called Healthy
Commercial real estate market called healthy
Brokerage owner John Harshman optimistic about next nine months
John Harshman is the owner and president of Harshman & Co. Inc., a Sarasota-based commercial real estate brokerage firm formed in 1989.
Today, the firm is considered among the region's top full-service brokerages, and Harshman has differentiated himself as one of the area's most knowledgeable agents, especially regarding downtown
Sarasota.
His clients include The Atrium on Ringling and the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre.
Harshman spoke recently with staff writer Kevin McQuaid about the state of the commercial real estate market and the outlook for the near future.
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Q: What is the current state of the commercial real estate market?
A: To answer that, I think you have to look at the fundamentals in the marketplace. Nationally, we have extremely low unemployment rates, relatively low interest rates -- though they're higher than they have been -- and there's a tremendous amount of money looking to place itself in real estate here, from both national and international sources.
There's demand and very low vacancy rates in all sectors of the market. Generally, the commercial real estate market here is healthy.
Q: What are the hottest sectors in the commercial real estate market? Office? Retail?
A: Residential development has really been the driving force in our market for the past four or five years. We've seen tremendous construction downtown: 85 to 90 percent of the projects are residential. They may be mixed with a little commercial space, but the dominant component is residential.
And with office vacancies in the 4 to 5 percent range, it, too, remains strong, though residential has been so strong it's been hard to compare any sector to that. With office space, though demand may be modest, availability has been slim.
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