Florida Real Estate Market Beckons Companies Across the Country
Companies in Michigan are certainly lured to Florida for the sunshine. These days, however, it’s the state of the real estate market that is attracting companies from the midwest and across the country.
Florida leads the nation in job growth and many communities report double-digit percentage gains in population, housing starts and housing appreciation.
These facts have lure have prompted a number of local development-related companies to expand into Florida, while still others are reported to be considering the option. Brian Stoy of the RBS Companies in Brighton started looking for Florida properties about two years ago.
The market is competitive and the landscape keeps changing as the flood of growth in the form of people, housing units, commercial space and jobs takes hold. With this in mind, Stoy’s strategy is to partner with a local company for development, sales and marketing.
That effort paid off, as the company bought two apartment complexes in Sarasota for a combined $15 million since the fourth quarter of 2005, and is launching condo conversions. It closed on another property in Siesta Key, also on the Gulf Coast, and has a contract to purchase an office tower in Sarasota that will come with the land to accommodate a 15-story condo tower.
RBS now has interests in eight properties near Sarasota and continues to seek more.
“We believe the area is going to have a good five-to-seven-year run of growth and development,” Stoy said “… When you look at the numbers and raw data, it’s just astounding.”
Impressive Florida investment numbers
Terry Simpson, regional vice president at Atwell-Hicks Inc., said the numbers are dramatic. His company operates seven offices in the Midwest, where a total of 80,000 building permits were filed during recent years in those communities.
By comparison, eight markets in Florida registered over 225,000 building permits during that same timeframe.
Atwell Hicks opened an office in Tampa in August 2005, transferring five employees from existing offices. Since then, the company has hired 30 people. Now the company has leased temporary office space in Orlando, and expects to have a permanent office running by the end of this year.
Other forays into the Florida real estate industry
Boss Engineering of Howell, meanwhile, is entering the Florida market through an acquisition. Dan Boss said the company purchased a 12-employee surveying company in the Tampa area in February and a partner in the Boss firm, Vipul Desai, will move there to run it.
“We’re also looking in the Orlando area for a small engineering firm,” Boss said.
Boss operates two offices in Michigan - and it looks to move into Florida as its development customers gain traction in that market. The sheer volume of work in that state should keep his firm busy, Boss said, as it adds services to the surveying office.
“There’s so much work down there, the companies (already in the market) can’t get it done,” Boss said.
G2 Consulting expanded from Troy into Brighton over the winter, and now is “taking significant steps toward opening an office in Florida,” said Mark Smolinski. That office is likely to be between Tampa and Orlando, two epicenters of Florida development.
“Tampa is the number one city for creating new jobs in each of the last four years,” Smolinski said. “That’s a hard statistic to ignore.”
Talk about Florida real estate values starting to cool won’t stop development, he added.
“Real estate is overpriced, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” Smolinski said. “But that hasn’t stopped people from purchasing and developing.
Stoy, whose RBS also has commercial and residential construction divisions in Michigan, said he sees high demand for some of the projects he’s involved in here.
Further, the ongoing adjustments in the state’s real estate markets means that there could be more acquisition opportunities here than in recent years, Stoy said. Investment opportunities in the Florida market remain strong.
SOURCE: Ann Arbor Business Review
