Lee County Commercial and Residential Real Estate Market News

A massive inventory of unsold homes in the Lee County housing market could bring bad times to both the residential and commercial industries.

However, real estate agents could help soften the blow by telling sellers to ask more realistic prices for their houses.

That’s what two experts told a sold-out audience Tuesday night at The News-Press Market Watch at the Harborside Event Center in downtown Fort Myers.

In 32 years in the real estate business, “I’ve never seen the impact of residential on commercial like this. There’s a lot of fear,” said commercial broker Frank D’Alessandro of Gates D’Alessandro Woodyard, Commercial Realtors.

With 23,000 houses and condos on the market in the county and the number rising, he said, the residential construction market is likely to slow dramatically this year as builders work through a backlog of homes ordered when Florida mortgage demand was strong.

With 65 percent of industrial space occupied by people such as developers, subcontractors and suppliers for the residential market, D’Alessandro said, the commercial market could be hurt.

“The bottom line is fewer tenants,” he said.

Other factors could exacerbate the situation, such as:

• With 3 million square feet of commercial space being built in south Lee, there will soon be higher vacancy rates and fewer dollars spent per store.

• Road impact fees are rising from $101,260 to in 2006 to $316,740 this year for a 20,000-square-foot retail building, making it questionable whether some new projects are viable with the added costs.

• Florida insurance premiums are up 200 to 300 percent.

• The price of building materials such as steel, concrete and fill dirt remain high, as does the price of fuel.