By MIKE BONTS
REAL ESTATE WIRE
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The dust has settled from a busy International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Florida Conference just concluded in Orlando.
Across the United States, rents have been stable since 2012, with occupancy has steadily climbed more than 1.5 percent. Florida, however, has seen a slight growth in rents—driven primarily by the South Florida markets—with occupancy growth aligned with the nationwide trend.
Looking back at the three day event held at the Orange County Convention Center:
REAL ESTATE WIRE
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The dust has settled from a busy International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Florida Conference just concluded in Orlando.
Across the United States, rents have been stable since 2012, with occupancy has steadily climbed more than 1.5 percent. Florida, however, has seen a slight growth in rents—driven primarily by the South Florida markets—with occupancy growth aligned with the nationwide trend.
Looking back at the three day event held at the Orange County Convention Center:
- Healthy and growing. Those are two words used to describe the Jacksonville, Fla. retail market. But there is one quadrant of the city that is outperforming all the rest. Cliff Taylor, a senior vice president at CBRE, told Globe St.'s Jennifer LeClaire that the retail market is healthy and is growing. The vacancy rate fell to 9.2% in the second quarter of 2015, compared to 10% a year ago. The St. Augustine submarket, which is the lowest, remained at 3%. Most of the growth is taking place in the southeast quadrant of the city, along the Butler corridor and east of Interstate 95, Ponte Vedra, and northern St. Johns County. There, St. Johns Town Center, which has about 1.41 million square feet of retail and features every major retailer from Target to Tiffany, continues to drive the majority of retail growth for the entire market. It is one of the most popular centers in the entire southeastern United States with more than 16 million visitors per year.
- Central Florida’s big retail real estate conference attracted more than 4,000 to the Orange County Convention Center this year — and the majority of them spent much of Monday engrossed in the huge deal-making part of the convention. The conference brought in bigger crowds than in past years, and that means new real estate deals likely will emerge in the coming weeks and months.
- Again this year, ICSC's Leadership Development Program offered one-on-one and group mentoring appointments with a variety of industry professionals at the ICSC Florida Conference. Appointments were an opportunity to discuss general career strategies, industry developments, and trends.