Business Parks Coming To Life?

by Laurel S. McQueen

BUSINESS PARK LEASING IN THE TAMPA BAY REGION STARTED COMing back alive in the third quarter. Only one county, Manatee, recorded a small net loss in occupancy. The region's annual absorption ticked upward five percent.

The amount of speculative construction in the market picked up a little steam this quarter. Across the region 553,550 sf of spec space is under construction, up 40 percent from 2nd quarter. About half of that space is scheduled for completion in December or Jan-uary, and 45 percent of the space is preleased. Still, just over 100,000 sf is on the draw-ing boards for construction later this year into next. By com-parison, through the 3rd quarter a year ago 1.09-million sf had already been completed, with 724,120 sf under construc-tion and 378,200 sf getting ready to start construction in the last quarter.

Hillsborough County saw a reversal of last quarter's net loss with a very healthy quarterly net absorption. That can be attributed to the eastern submarket where the vacancy rate dropped 1.3 percentage points. The market west of I-275 ­ the airport market ­ again saw a net loss. This area has expe-rienced losses in three of the past four quarters. But construc-tion of a new park near the airport was started this quarter.

Pinellas County may be staging a comeback. Third quarter absorption was the highest in seven quarters with the vacan-cy rate taking a slight dip. While there is just 96,000 sf of new space under construction, 79 percent of it is preleased. High profile space along I-275 is once again 100 percent leased.

Sarasota County's return to positive net absorption pushed the annual absorption rate up eight percent. Construction was completed this quarter on 76,900 sf of space at two locations. Half was a build-to-suit and it is all occupied. Construction was started on 31,000 sf of speculative space at Sarasota County Interstate Business Park in the Venice market.

Polk County's net quarterly absorption was down 81 per-cent from last quarter. The annual loss worsened by 97 per-cent as fairly reasonable positive net absorption dropped out of the 12-month moving rate. With a very large chunk of space available at Florida Central Park in Davenport, the county has the region's highest vacancy rate. If this space is not counted, the vacancy rate drops to 8.1 percent. Two large build-to-suits remain under construction in the county for delivery at the end of this year and the beginning of 2003.

Pasco County's net quarter absorption was up 22 percent, while annual absorption moved up 18 percent. Construction was started during the quarter on 24,000 sf of spec space at West Pasco Industrial Park.

Manatee County now has had two consecutive quarters of net occupancy losses. Consequently annual absorption dropped 22 percent from 2nd quarter. Space that has been listed as under construction for several years at the Airport Manufacturing Center has finally kicked into high gear and is scheduled for completion in December 2002 and April 2003.

No activity was recorded in Hernando County. Quarterly data is revised as new information is obtained.

Quarterly data is revised as new information is obtained. Data on County Business Park Space Guides may not add up to numbers shown on Business Park Market chart as sub-lease space and space coming available in the next few months are shown in the guides, but not included in analysis data. For more detailed information on the survey call the MADDUX Research Department at 727/321-3225 or send inquiries via e-mail to MADDUXResearch@AOL.com.

Shopping centers that have been fully leased for two or more periods do not appear in the survey charts. All shopping centers continue to be updated in the database each half-year. For a complete survey call MADDUX Research Department at 727/321-3225 or e-mail at Maddux Research@AOL.com.